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TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

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171–180 of 374 posts

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Auditable for what, though? What would you find there that you would have the government ban?

Preferential treatment of anti-democratic messages and rhetoric or anti-US sentiment. This should be measurable.

That is a massive rabbit hole. "anti-democratic messages" and "anti-us sentiment" is going to inevitably be used to further undemocratic process and imperialism. An article "The US blew up a hospital" gets flagged as anti-us sentiment, and buried. A journalist covering political contributions gets buried by "anti-democratic messages". This is basically inevitable.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#172

I found the actual report this is based on even more interesting: https://app.urlgeni.us/blog/new-research-across-200-ios-apps... Just a few of the highlights: Magazine apps had the highest number of total network contacts (28), and the highest percentage of third party domain contacts (93%) Social apps, followed by Games apps, made the fewest number of network contacts, 6 and 7 respectively. Apps making the most num…

Also, the report makes the title seem very biased. Home Depot, Reuters, WSJ are all using more 3th party trackers.

I think who they are sharing with (potentially) matters more than the number of orgs they are sharing with.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#173

It's not unclear at all. It's Chinese data harvesting software. They'll do token public appeasement to avoid negative pressure, but every feature in the app is designed to collect biometrics and behavioral data. China is not a good faith operator. Given the data needed to influence public opinion and voting, they will engage in manipulation favorable to their interests. That alone is sufficient to run tiktok at a los…

Well, same as facebook and US.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t refute anything you say, but linking to a page that features Glenn Beck, Mark Levin and Tucker Carlson doesn’t help your case. Not to mention the clear partisanship and call for donation to the “American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology” - a rabbit hole I’m happy to avoid.

That's an artifact of the politics. If a company had been tilting this in favor of the right, you would find Maddow, Lemon, and other left wing bobbleheads instead of right wing bobbleheads. Don't let guilt by association bias your thinking in this, but give the subject the deliberation it deserves. If you value the integrity of democracy and public discourse, ignore the messengers for whom the optics are politically…

No, we should not ignore the messengers. There are enough credible people and content supporting your arguments, and there is no need to shove in the fundraising campaigns of opportunistic people that regularily argue against human rights.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#175
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The users of TikTok are mostly teenagers and young adults, that's why. Nearly everybody in journalism is late 20s or 30+. They just don't get it, though to be fair vine had a similar type of content and that failed.

I'm in my mid-40s: there's nothing deep or mysterious to "get" about TikTok. It's short-form video snips/vignettes, mainly of people showing off for their friends, trying to cash in on short-lived audio trends and meme pipelines, and sometimes both. It reminds me of the kind of bravado/showing off my peers in middle- and high-school did: because that's essentially what it is. Edit for more context: I happen to be dat…

I'm not much younger and tried it after some HN thread. Basically the algorithm is really good, as it should be on more platforms. So if you don't like memes and dance and beauty contents, you won't get that. It can be just DIY videos, niche musicians and short science videos if that's what you want to see.

I don't think it's shallow. I've learned a lot from it. It just gives you what you want to watch and what you want to watch may be based on the idea that you have about the platform.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#176
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok should be banned in the US. China banned all of our homegrown social networks, its pretty standard international precedent to ban theirs, given the security risks.

Right, I actually see this as a very simple trade issue! China doesn't allow US social networks in China, so the US shouldn't allow Chinese social networks in the US. Doing anything else means that Chinese companies have the ability to build international platforms—where both Chinese and US citizens can participate—and US companies do not. Furthermore, those international platforms could potentially be made to enforc…

US social networks are allowed to operate in China, they just have to follow the local law. Facebook was banned after denying the authorities the data of Uighur protesters after a deathly riot in 2009. Imagine the outcry here if a riot that left more than a hundred people dead was organized on facebook, and then the company decides to protect the rioters. Google and Twitter decided that the backlash back home wasn't worth the attempt to enter the market, since they would have to comply with strict censorship laws. Some US social media platforms do operate within China.

TikTok does follow US law, so instead of flat out banning it, the reasonable thing to do would be to enact sensible privacy legislation... But oh wait, then tech giants can't exploit the local population anymore.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#177
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No thanks, don't need any more authoritarian moves from presidential over reach. Privacy laws for companies making X$ in yearly revenue is much saner approach.

Countries deciding that foreigners can't use their citizen's data willy-nilly is neither authoritarian nor over-reach, and neither is restricting those foreigners from access when they don't comply. For a generally accepted instance, see the EU GDPR.

GDPR applies to european companies too.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#178
post #24

It's not unclear at all. It's Chinese data harvesting software. They'll do token public appeasement to avoid negative pressure, but every feature in the app is designed to collect biometrics and behavioral data. China is not a good faith operator. Given the data needed to influence public opinion and voting, they will engage in manipulation favorable to their interests. That alone is sufficient to run tiktok at a los…

TikTok should be banned in the US. China banned all of our homegrown social networks, its pretty standard international precedent to ban theirs, given the security risks.

Snowden exposed the wholesale, unauthorized data collection operation the US NatSec complex was performing and we haven't banned the us government from peering to the internet.

Why should we ban people voluntarily using a short video service that shows them things they like and whose business model is virtually identical to every other social media company?

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#179
post #24

It's not unclear at all. It's Chinese data harvesting software. They'll do token public appeasement to avoid negative pressure, but every feature in the app is designed to collect biometrics and behavioral data. China is not a good faith operator. Given the data needed to influence public opinion and voting, they will engage in manipulation favorable to their interests. That alone is sufficient to run tiktok at a los…

TikTok should be banned in the US. China banned all of our homegrown social networks, its pretty standard international precedent to ban theirs, given the security risks.

No US tech just doesn't want to follow Chinese law so they left, kind of like how facebook threatened to leave EU recently. If the EU continues with their cyber law.

Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes

#180

I feel like TikTok is significantly underdiscussed, almost like the tech and business press are assuming it's a flash-in-the-pan more similar to Snapchat than Facebook. It is almost certainly having a major impact on the business of some of the most prominent publicly traded companies in the US, yet there are just a handful of articles discussing their impact on Facebook's disastrous quarterly results.

The users of TikTok are mostly teenagers and young adults, that's why. Nearly everybody in journalism is late 20s or 30+. They just don't get it, though to be fair vine had a similar type of content and that failed.

I this take is wrong. TikTok might be mostly teenagers but it's not an under the radar platform. It's mainstream and used by all ages.
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