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ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

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Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#111
post #7

I feel like this is talking out of both sides of the mouth. If the issue is that corporations aren't following data privacy laws, build the privacy into the tool at the software/ecosystem level (e.g make signup without true name / phone number / IMEI a legal requirement, signup without location sharing a legal requirement) then it'll be impossible to track journalists for both Chinese and American companies.

We should do both. This is detracting from the fact that we have an actively hostile actor with a huge platform here in our country, and that needs to be handled as soon as possible. I totally support broad regulation of privacy law. TikTok is a much deeper concern. I don't like seeing a good cause used to distract from another good cause.

I often wonder why the average american should be more concerned about China than the CIA or FBI?

the FBI has the power to put me in a cage, China does not... I am confused as why china is a bigger threat to me personally than the FBI?

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#112

We need a law to generally make this illegal. Uber did the same thing and Tesla hired PIs to do it.

Laws are meaningless without enforcement, and good luck getting US law enforcement to enforce laws that they themselves are breaking routinely. We need a whole culture shift in government if we're going to have any hope of fixing this.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#116
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Ed Snowden proved to us this is not true. Room 614a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

That was revealed several years before Snowden's defection.

And yet nothing was done about it.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should do both. This is detracting from the fact that we have an actively hostile actor with a huge platform here in our country, and that needs to be handled as soon as possible. I totally support broad regulation of privacy law. TikTok is a much deeper concern. I don't like seeing a good cause used to distract from another good cause.

I often wonder why the average american should be more concerned about China than the CIA or FBI? the FBI has the power to put me in a cage, China does not... I am confused as why china is a bigger threat to me personally than the FBI?

Depends hugely on who you are and what happens with the politics.

CIA and FBI are very big threats to you, which is why you vote regularly to ensure that your rights are represented and those agencies aren't able to abuse their power.

China is a much more distant and abstract, but much more serious threat.

If the FBI or CIA fucks up, they will put let's say 10% of people in prison for opposition to the state.

If China is allowed to gain upper hands on the United States, it will result in broad scale societal problems which I couldn't even begin to estimate. Imagine a world where Russia is allowed to take Europe. Imagine a world where the United States is convinced to stand by as Taiwan is invaded and our chip supply is shut down.

They are very different threats, and should be treated very differently. The FBI and CIA are immune system type systems, where China is a guy with a knife.

The CIA and FBI have checks on them and are balanced as we speak. China is a fully rogue actor with no balancing systems to prevent it from damaging our society.

Both can kill you, both will kill you if given the opportunity. You shouldn't worry not about the guy with a knife because your immune system can kill you in 5 minutes if it wanted to. You should worry about both.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#118
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim wasn't that they did so for the Chinese government. But Facebook, for example, did so, for its own purposes. This is just as bad. We can't really have journalism being threatened, regardless of whether it's threatened by China, or supposedly-loyal US companies.

> Facebook, for example, did so, for its own purposes. This is just as bad It’s in a totally different league. Domestic corporation spying for commercial purposes versus a militaristic dictatorship with a track record of extrajudicial harassment.

Large US corporations and their owners also have a track record of extrajudicial harassment.

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it Cold War paranoia when Russia is currently engaged in the invasion of another country?

It sure smells like it when you're using terminology outdated by 30 years. Don't use anachronisms if you don't want people to think you're anachronistic. You may as well call Russians "Soviets". Yes, it's many of the same people in the same buildings, doing the same sort of bullshit. But they aren't called Soviets anymore and if you go around calling them Soviets, you'll going to have people think that you're stuck i…

Do you insist people refer to the company who Mark Zuckerberg is CEO of as Meta? And correct people who speak of 'Google stock'?

Re: ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

#120
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should do both. This is detracting from the fact that we have an actively hostile actor with a huge platform here in our country, and that needs to be handled as soon as possible. I totally support broad regulation of privacy law. TikTok is a much deeper concern. I don't like seeing a good cause used to distract from another good cause.

We should do the one because it covers both cases. A TikTok that doesn't have the ability to do bad things isn't an issue. Focusing on TikTok pretends that it's the only hostile actor with a large platform in that needs to be handled asap You can handle Facebook and TikTok at the same time by putting in strong privacy regulations, along with all the other similar hostile actors

Tiktok isn’t only dangerous because of the data they harvest. It’s the epitome of algorithmic social media, which can be extremely damaging to society, and also a tool for propaganda and disinformation.
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