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TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
181–190 of 374 posts
Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I totally get you and absolutely agree, but we're entering into in a vastly new world and your concern isn't the only one anymore.
If a foreign nation's service uses algorithms to promote its interests and quell that of its adversaries or attempts to alter election outcomes to be favorable, then we're in for trouble.
Imagine social media creating worker strikes, riots, getting certain politicians elected, influencing the next generation of kids to prefer limits on free speech, influencing kids to not pursue science and engineering, etc.
This is a complicated issue.
The algorithm can be used for warfare.
Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
#183It'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…
I try to remain grounded and check myself, and this may be me in tin foil hat territory, but the game here on the part of the CCP is long. If ever there is a time for 'think of the children', this is it. Political scandals are already getting more and more private - just imagine what it will be like in 20 years when the current crop of teens are starting to run for high office. And in case you're thinking, well too bad for them, plenty of teens don't do dumb things - that's true, but this will be dream kompromat for nation states controlling this data. I know Meta et al have the same data and are insanely powerful, but they're not nation states and are at least in theory, accountable.
Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
#184China has taken over our youth.
Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
#185Earlier 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…
If you were writing this in 2019 I would agree with you.
This perception is just already 3 years old now and so that social network has already gotten its additional audiences and many of those high schoolers (and their influencers) have grown up.
There is a similarity of looking at Facebook in 2005 and looking at Facebook in 2008, and add in a much faster adoption cycle and infrastructure.
Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
#186Even if it didn't share data.. it's designed from the beginning to be addictive. While other platforms like Facebook and Instagram grew into being platforms with aims to be addictive, I believe they started in a more neutral place. This type of app should be treated like smoking imo.
Queue the "you can find educational material on tiktok!" posts by the subset of HN who really love the app and the company.
Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
#187Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Preferential treatment of anti-democratic messages and rhetoric or anti-US sentiment. This should be measurable.
But can the government legally restrict that kind of activity? It would be pretty cut-and-dried viewpoint discrimination triggering the most severe First Amendment scrutiny. Beyond that, I'm not sure how easy it would really be to detect. Seems like the method for that kind of thing would more likely be to have networks of users/bots/whatever that take advantage of facially neutral recommendation algorithms. So would…
yea these convos really make me think 'all hope is lost'
when you get some decent idea fleshed out re: adtech algorithm auditing and your first thought is:
yea lets root out anti american sentiment in the algo. facepalm
strong fox news vibes around here these days
Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
#189One thing that I found very interesting when I looked into what TikTok does: it's scary good at aggregating data about you. I live in a foreign country, my phone's network is behind a VPN to a different foreign country and I gave the app no extra permissions, yet somehow I still got recommended content from the country where I was born. Since it's a small country there's no way that's a coincidence. I'm both intrigue…
Are you on iphone or android?
I would guess that your device has been fingerprinted through other app usage you have used, and that fingerprint has an association with the country of your birth.
It's possible that such a service is provided by a state actor, or part of a marketing/advertising service.
Re: TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
#190[deleted]