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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

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great. Then kill it, then kill any company with Chinese origin that won’t open source it’s hardware and software to the US Government.

The American clones are garbage. The problem with protectionism is it leads to less competition and therefore worse products. If you want apps to stop tracking people just make it illegal for apps to tracks people. Country of origin is irrelelvant.

I'm going to have to disagree : if you allow (for instance) a giant like Google Search to operate in your country, you can pretty much say goodbye to competition in the search engine space.

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

#212
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm very skeptical that there is such a thing as a regulation which can keep a state actor with zero transparency like TikTok in check. Even if you move all of their code and mandate that they have a shell company in the United States, and you mandate that none of American data ever goes to China, they can ignore you. You validate that every request only stays in the United States? How do you validate that there's no…

TikTok isn't a state actor.

Contrary to the current American discourse, not everyone in China is a government bot.

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

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the resistance cynicism, however your statement about democracy seems to be more faith based than any kind of data What data do you have to support the position that "democracy ultimately is still doing its job. " further what "job" do you believe democracy is doing. I can point to many data points that show it is not, the for mentioned lack of accountability. The fact that most of the voting population…

You can point out individual points of data as much as you want, the end result is what matters. Have you seen journalists attacking a dictatorship while living there, and go unpunished? Have you seen the same, but on democratic countries? That should answer it.

Perhaps the leaders of the democratic countries realised that journalists attacking them keeps the illusion alive

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

#214
As a reminder for everyone, as a Chinese domestic corporation providing Internet-based services/telecom services, Bytedance is legally obligated to provide active engineering cooperation for database-replication and a pipeline into its internal systems to the Ministry of State Security (MSS).

This is not some obscure conspiracy theory but well documented mainland China domestic law.

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

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Chin…

I think the comment you're replying to is specifically addressing the browsing data discussed in the post... I don't see how any of these issues are related to Bytedance having your IP history

It's a different story if you are a Chinese national in the US, have family in China, are reporting on China, etc. But for most Americans it probably matters more if Google is sharing your info with various three-letter agencies.

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

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Chin…

> 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.

This analogy is great, because it's a better analogy than you think. Immune issues kill a LOT more people than knife attacks in the USA every year. In general, external enemies are less dangerous than internal enemies. It's easy to rally people against an external enemy (see the Robbers Cave Experiment in psychology), but much harder to rally people against an internal enemy.

There are 0.60 knife deaths per 100k people in the USA. [1] There are 3.97 deaths for SAID per 100k [2], and that's just the first type of autoimmune issue that I googled for off the top of my head.

Rome faced plenty of external enemies over the years, what actually caused the fall of Rome was internal.

[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/stabbing-.... [2] https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article/60/3/1321/5908...

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

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Chin…

"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."

Never worked, will never work. Big people/elites will always have access to every data. The pretext will be "National Security" or "Children". It is like baptist vs bootleggers, so voting won't solve the problem.

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

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Imagine a world where Russia is allowed to take Europe." Russia can not even 'take' Ukraine the chances of it being able to take Europe are zero at this point.

A big part of the issues Russia has had taking Ukraine has been because America is funding and helping them out as well. I don't want to totally discredit Ukraine here, but there is a world where without American support Russia would be having a much easier time.

In that world without American support, Russia would probably have been occupied or severely weakened by the Nazi in WWII, and history would have been way different. Just nitpicking, I agree on principle.

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

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Chin…

>>which is why you vote regularly to ensure that your rights are represented and those agencies aren't able to abuse their power That never works out in practice as the administrative state (which includes the FBI and CIA) are soo far removed from representative government they are basically unaccountable at this point, that is with out even getting into the idea that 1 vote in a nation of 350 million plus holds no r…

> "Democracy" is more or less an delusion those in power perpetuate to ensure the cattle think they have a choice

Democracy is a system that ensures that whoever has the actual power also holds the formal power.

The only direct result of this is that it makes revolutions unnecessary. But indirectly, it also makes revolution-like changes much more common, what is really great.

What democracy isn't is a system that empowers the small people, or that removes power imbalances, or whatever propaganda you've got. There are many visible false features about it that lots of people believe. But that doesn't mean it's a bad system, it's the best we currently know about.

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

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When US bans something to protect itself, that’s OK, but when another country does it, it’s a suppression of free speech and freedoms and whatnot. Doesn’t this sound a bit off ?

We’re not in the world of what ifs and ethical debates. We are in a world where our strategic enemy has a foothold on our digital lives and will likely use it against us. This is evidence. We should treat our enemies as enemies. China doesn’t consider itself to be in a friendly competition for dominance. Neither should we.

Remind me. Why should the rest of the world put up with Google and Facebook? Free trade for me but not for thee? This hypocrisy is maddening.

Companies need to comply with PI laws. Then there is no need to find excuses to keep approved spyware companies operating depending on where the stockholders live.

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