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TikTok updated privacy policy to collect faceprints and voiceprints (2021)

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Re: TikTok updated privacy policy to collect faceprints and voiceprints (2021)

#51
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is a spectacular example of both human- and democracy-hacking. It's like an authoritarian regime saw facebook in 2012 and said, "hold my beverage of choice."

> authoritarian regime saw facebook in 2012 and said What a weird statement. Facebook has been taking all of that data for a long time. Some of the protections in Android and iOS were specifically added to inhibit Facebook from recording the surroundings in the background. TikTok just does more of the same partly because they just have more audio and video data to work with. Remember how Uber showed how cool they can…

That's not the insinuation at all

Re: TikTok updated privacy policy to collect faceprints and voiceprints (2021)

#52
It’s incredible that the US allowed TikTok (which is by all measures a chinese spy tool) to become such a dominant social network.

India got it right from the beggining by banning TikTok. They saw the immense threat and didn’t hesitate.

China, by principle, has always banned all foreign information technology companies. What seemed hostile for us, it’s a reasonable play if you understand the unmeasurable power of massive information products such as Google or Facebook.

Meanwhile the US is just focused on attacking its own homegrown tech companies and diminishing their ability to compete in global contexts.

We are on a declining trajectory and we willingly paved that road. It’s sad.

Re: TikTok updated privacy policy to collect faceprints and voiceprints (2021)

#53

A security researcher wrote an article while back and it was shocking to see how much data TikTok was collecting: - biometrics - what words are mentioned in the video, popularity - surrounding wifi, location data - your contacts (presumably to cross link to social media platforms) I just can't believe that a powerful country like America is letting a not-so-friendly military/civilian complex infiltrate it for somewha…

I think that people like are actually glad that TikTok and others collect your data because it makes you feel much more important and needed than you really are!

Re: TikTok updated privacy policy to collect faceprints and voiceprints (2021)

#54
It's also worth to remember:

"Facebook Inc. has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe clips of audio from users of its services"

"Social network says it paused human review of conversations"

So again my question is wtf is so big fuss about tiktok. We already knew about PRISM and that all the data goes to the government. It also goes to 3rd party contractors, advertisers and who knows who else...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-13/facebook-...

Re: TikTok updated privacy policy to collect faceprints and voiceprints (2021)

#55
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is a spectacular example of both human- and democracy-hacking. It's like an authoritarian regime saw facebook in 2012 and said, "hold my beverage of choice."

> authoritarian regime saw facebook in 2012 and said What a weird statement. Facebook has been taking all of that data for a long time. Some of the protections in Android and iOS were specifically added to inhibit Facebook from recording the surroundings in the background. TikTok just does more of the same partly because they just have more audio and video data to work with. Remember how Uber showed how cool they can…

I think the „2012“ comes from the notion that Facebook was somehow more widely used in the past. I also think it’s the case from time to time since my family &friends don‘t use FB, but they have quadrupled their DAUs since 2012

Re: TikTok updated privacy policy to collect faceprints and voiceprints (2021)

#57
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would you not make the same argument for google?

The legal environment is wildly different. Google doesn’t have an internal board of government officials controlling it. All large software companies in China do. Google doesn’t operate in China for this reason. Apple divested their cloud operations to the Guizhou government for this reason. In the US is it normal and routine for corporations to dispute government demands. In China, If you don’t play ball with the pa…

>> In the US is it normal and routine for corporations to dispute government demands.

But we already know that's just somescreen and the U.S gov/NSA gets the data. Poor Snowden ruined his life for almost nothing.

Re: TikTok updated privacy policy to collect faceprints and voiceprints (2021)

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that any of it is acceptable?

It should be unacceptable regardless of country of origin.

I agree. But until then, what do you think the people should do?

Re: TikTok updated privacy policy to collect faceprints and voiceprints (2021)

#60

A security researcher wrote an article while back and it was shocking to see how much data TikTok was collecting: - biometrics - what words are mentioned in the video, popularity - surrounding wifi, location data - your contacts (presumably to cross link to social media platforms) I just can't believe that a powerful country like America is letting a not-so-friendly military/civilian complex infiltrate it for somewha…

Apart from biometrics all of these are things you would more or less expect them to collect. Words mentioned in the video and the videos popularity are important for the recommendation algorithm, and the censorship of "age inappropriate content". Location data similarly goes into the recommendation algo. Any social app asks for contacts nowadays (as much as I despise it).

The insidious thing is how the data is used. For example knowing the exact content of each video allows them to filter certain topics and promote others. Knowing your location allows them to use this geopolitically (showing content about the Ukraine war in some places, but not in others).

Whether intentional or unintentional, their recommendation engine infers demographic information. I'm pretty sure TikTok thought for a while that I was gay; videos with reasonably accurate predictions like "if this is recommended to you, you are a male between 25 and 30 who is introverted. You like to start projects but never finish them" were a trend for a while.

All of this gives TikTok and by extension China a great tool to influence opinions and moods in a finely targeted way. Take all the scandals about what Facebook experimented with, and how targeted ads influenced elections and votes, and give that power to one party with no oversight. That's TikTok.

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