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ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

forbes.com

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

#391

Post by [deleted] »

Hitton wrote: post #369
Veen wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not reading it right. The FT journalist in this story is not American. But, as a general rule, nations seek to protect their own citizens.

They wrote that other users connected to her were also targeted, which apparently included Americans too. Otherwise why would they do this: >ByteDance has since restructured its internal audit team and removed access to US data from that department. I read it as their internal audit team still having access to userdata data from other regions.

[deleted]

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

#392

Post by LarryMullins »

pavlov wrote: post #389
throwawaylinux wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could be agents for the communist party operating without the knowledge of the regular management.

The management in every Chinese company absolutely knows which employees are working primarily for the Party. They were not hired by accident.

They probably don't know all of them, if the Party knows what it's about.

In the old Soviet system, you had people who were openly members of the Party, political officers placed in your organization. But you also had KGB agents placed in your organization that you didn't know about, because their job was to keep an eye on you.

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

#395

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

jasonlotito wrote: post #364
thefounder wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After wikileaks/Snowden this is just not news anymore. I really fail to see what's new. What am I missing?

People learning about this for the first time. Snowden/wikileaks weren't even the first ones to share this. It's been well known for decades. It's not a secret. It's well known and well established in many industries. And why does this happen? Because money. Every single tech darling plays along. Chances are, unless you knew for a fact you weren't participating in this, you were at some level.

Prior to Snowden those people were derided as part of the paranoid tinfoil hat crowd. The only thing known was some vague discussion of Carnivore and Tempest.

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

#396

Post by Max-Ganz-II »

Max-Ganz-II wrote: post #321
lannisterstark wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, your govt is banning enough of the shit with some real questionable reasons(while keeping some actual questionable things/traditions alive) that being skeptical is probably still the best bet. and let's not pretend that the UA govt has had a history of transparency lol. Being better than Russia has been a low bar in the eastern bloc. -30 is better than -70 but it's still far below 0.

> I mean, your govt is banning enough of the shit with some real questionable reasons(while keeping some actual questionable things/traditions alive) that being skeptical is probably still the best bet. Such as? > and let's not pretend that the UA govt has had a history of transparency lol. Being better than Russia has been a low bar in the eastern bloc. -30 is better than -70 but it's still far below 0. Why bring up…

Addendum.

1. I did not write what I mean, to say the account is new : I mean to say, it has sprung into life, for this thread. Farm accounts can be brand new, and many are, but you also find accounts which have been around for a long time, and then start being used. I suspect Farms constantly make accounts, bank them, and then consume them however many months or years later.

2. Having read the comments from this account, I does not feel like a Farm account. However, I could be wrong. Farm accounts in my experience use different approaches - some are combative, some are mild, some use the usual twisted Russian or Chinese logic ("we had to invade Ukraine because of NATO!", etc).

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

#397

Post by Tepix »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #347

We really really need to shut this down as a national security issue. If they took it off Apple and Google Play stores it would reduce usage immediately by at least 80-90% along with having apple/android send out blocks like they can for malware (which it is). It's hard to believe Biden didn't continue Trump's attempt to shut it down.

I didn't see you shut down Uber who did worse things.

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

#398

Post by cocacola1 »

nailer wrote: post #383
wikfwikf wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the First Amendment?

If you mean ‘what about freedom of speech’ - ie the moral value rather than the US law - tiktok’s not being banned for speech but for stealing user data.

OP mentioned it as a “national security issue” so I think they meant to invoke First Amendment freedom of speech.

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

#399

Post by eldritch_4ier »

lmm wrote: post #132
eldritch_4ier wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good things are good, evil things are evil. This detached observer way of looking at the world is mind boggling. There is nothing contradictory about arguing for the good and arguing against the evil. I think this mindset stems from a fundamental uncertainty in our values, and conclude that our values are just as good as any others. It’s simply not true. No. TikTok is run by a state hostile to the ideals of freedom a…

The idea that US is good and China is evil is absurd. Other Americans do far more to destroy "ideals of freedom and our western way of life" than China does - hell, I'm pretty sure that with the current US polarisation, both sides would say they have more in common with China than with their US opponents - and they'd be right. Take any concept of "freedom" or "way of life" that you care for, and half the US is curren…

The US is good-er. There are bad people in the US of course, but this will always be the case and can’t be a reason we restrict ourselves from increasing the good in the world. This argument boils down to “there are bad things and bad people even among us, so we have no moral standing to prevent any more evil”.

Again, no. That fatalistic attitude doesn’t help anyone and is just a suicide pact. We have a responsibility to expand the good in the world. That includes domestically with rooting out our evil, but also includes keeping China out.

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

#400

Post by TechBro8615 »

sergiotapia wrote: post #394

We should ban this app from the United States. What dirt will China have on our politicians 30 years from now?

How do you propose we "ban" it from the United States? Should it be illegal for me to run TikTok on any of my devices? Do you want the US government to compel Apple and Google to delist TikTok from their app stores?

Before answering, consider carefully whether this is a precedent you want to set. Some in government may want to do the same for Twitter.

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