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FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

blog.malwarebytes.com

21–30 of 899 posts

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#22
post #16
post #10

I don't have a horse in this race at all, but the annoying part is that the same rules don't get applied across the board. Everything they're accusing TikTok of - from data harvesting to the government having access to said data - is true for western companies as well and that should be the problem. Not the fact that the data is now in the hands of the Chinese but that the data is being collected at all provided to t…

Perhaps there is a reason why China’s government bans all the American Social Media companies. If they could undermine the country’s sovereignty then it would be a significant difference.

They ban them because the companies don't want to follow the same rules Chinese companies have to follow. It's exactly what I'm asking for. Have one set of rules and apply them to everyone. Ban data harvesting completely. Ban it for Facebook, Google and everyone else and then kick out TikTok because they don't follow the rules.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#24

However putting this data in the hands of FAANG is no problem at all, and totally can't end up in any nefarious hands.

Not just FAANG! Smaller vendors are a very significant threat vector, too, precisely because they are smaller. More owners with smaller margins, looking to squeeze the last bit of profit from the available data, thus entering grey areas almost by definition. Entire markets emerged just from this - afaik data brokers dont get access to, say, Apples Databases. At least FAANG has no real business incentive to sell the data directly.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#25
post #10

I don't have a horse in this race at all, but the annoying part is that the same rules don't get applied across the board. Everything they're accusing TikTok of - from data harvesting to the government having access to said data - is true for western companies as well and that should be the problem. Not the fact that the data is now in the hands of the Chinese but that the data is being collected at all provided to t…

You're assuming the government's goal is to treat all countries and companies fairly. It's not. It will always make decisions in its own interests. Whether that is ethical is neither here nor there, I can't imagine of a world where that's not the case.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#26
"TikTok is said to collect “everything”, from search and browsing histories; keystroke patterns; biometric identifiers—including faceprints"

How can they even collect browsing history or biometric identifiers on Android? Isn't browser history stored in the browser's private storage space, or am I being naive here?

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#27
post #14

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Carr_(lawyer) Lawyer that opposed net neutrality and now voicing his disapproval of apps built by the China. Sounds like he's making a play to become a career politician using his version of what 'ok authoritarianism' is. I'd like to see someone actually prove a security risk rather than hypothetically posing it. I.e. show me 1000 tiktok downloaded videos run through a program wi…

You're asking for the impossible as 'anyone' is not tiktok.

We as individuals don't have access to that data, only tiktok does.. so we as individuals can't prove this to you.

Edit: Removed ask to share all personal data, because its bad form.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#28
post #26

"TikTok is said to collect “everything”, from search and browsing histories; keystroke patterns; biometric identifiers—including faceprints" How can they even collect browsing history or biometric identifiers on Android? Isn't browser history stored in the browser's private storage space, or am I being naive here?

Probably means browsing within the app. Although the fyp is the meat of it, you can also browse topics and hashtags.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#29
post #26

"TikTok is said to collect “everything”, from search and browsing histories; keystroke patterns; biometric identifiers—including faceprints" How can they even collect browsing history or biometric identifiers on Android? Isn't browser history stored in the browser's private storage space, or am I being naive here?

Browsing history: many apps (like reddit, Instagram) have their own browser in the app so they can track it, and they nag you to use their app when you open their website.

Biometric identifiers, I'm guessing mostly facial features: if you take a selfie/self-video with TikTok (which millions of people do) they can just take the data from there.

Re: FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores

#30
post #10

I don't have a horse in this race at all, but the annoying part is that the same rules don't get applied across the board. Everything they're accusing TikTok of - from data harvesting to the government having access to said data - is true for western companies as well and that should be the problem. Not the fact that the data is now in the hands of the Chinese but that the data is being collected at all provided to t…

You could argue that a data hoarder in a jurisdiction other than your own is even less significant for personal data security. I agree though that western companies more or less don't have any case here as they behave the same way as TikTok in China. They are just less dishonest about it.

Furthermore the behavior of intelligence agencies sanctioned this kind of surveillance. Ironically the decreased trust will be vastly more relevant to lessened security than their surveillance attempts could ever make up for. So they failed their primary mission too. In a supposedly free country it is a strategy that only produces losers and there is not change in sight.

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