Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 501 posts

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

#401

Post by eldritch_4ier »

mardifoufs wrote: post #142
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…

Your comment only makes sense since you are an american. The entire premise of your argument completely false a part when you have actually experienced what the "goodness" of america, say in the middle east, means.

No, it makes sense because my values are good and I happen to be American.

This is exactly my point. You’re saying “because the US has done bad things in the past, it has no moral standing to do good in the future”. A lot of bad happened in the Middle East, some parts caused by the US, so that means we can’t ban the evils of China in our country and minimize their harms abroad?

Try this: focus on increasing the good in the world. Don’t be hamstrung by “well the US has done bad things before”. “We can’t do good anymore because we’ve done bad before” is not a valid argument. And no, none of this makes China equally good.

It’s not your job to weigh all the countries of the world on some balance to decide who’s been the most good. That’s that detached observer mindset again, and it does nothing but occupy your mind and sap your agency while bad things continue. Your job is to increase the good in the world. If you don’t care to do so, then get out of the way

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

#402

Post by gjsman-1000 »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #400
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.

Read the proposed ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act. That’s how.

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

#403

Post by bfgoodrich »

blackbear_ wrote: post #345

> General counsel Erich Andersen wrote to staff that a “misguided plan was developed and carried out by a few individuals within the Internal Audit department this past summer”, adding that those involved “misused their authority to obtain access to TikTok user data” in violation of its code of conduct. Ah yes, straight from the playbook: management gets caught being mischievous and throws a few underlings under the…

[dead]

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

#404

Post by iamben »

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 absolutely get your point, but the solution feels incredibly heavy handed, especially as 99.99999%+ of the users are unlikely to ever warrant tracking.

Surely a better solution would be briefing journalists not to install pretty much anything on their phones that they don't actually need.

Edit: for clarity, I guess I'm saying that if there's ever a point when a country/company tracking you is likely to warrant problems, perhaps you need to consider how it could happen and how you could avoid it.

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

#405

Post by JumpCrisscross »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #400
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.

> How do you propose we "ban" it from the United States?

Sanction it.

> some in government may want to do the same for Twitter

Difficult to do this with an American, or even allied, country.

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

#406

Post by bfgoodrich »

Zpalmtree wrote: post #365
jasonlotito wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In which case, there would be evidence of that. Prosecutors are notorious for wanting the biggest fish out there. While their might be bigger players that are getting away with this, it's also not unreasonable to think that it happened as the evidence shows. Basically, rather than make stuff up, I'd rather go with what the evidence shows and what can be proven. It's easy to hide in a big company, and it's at a bigger…

they just decided to track journalists for fun with no-one telling them to? seems pretty unlikely to me.

[dead]

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

#407

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Tepix wrote: post #397
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.

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

You're comparing a company pursuing commercial interests with a militaristic dictatorship threatening our allies.

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

#408

Post by ffiirree »

phpisthebest wrote: post #111
bioemerl wrote: post #29

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?

I won't use any names but Smusshia helped get Donald Duck elected. What could Chmina do? How could they erode our society? The implications are enormous, and not even theoretical by this point. A lot of societal attack on us has already been documented.

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

#409

Post by TechBro8615 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #405
TechBro8615 wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> How do you propose we "ban" it from the United States? Sanction it. > some in government may want to do the same for Twitter Difficult to do this with an American, or even allied, country.

The result of this will be millions of American teen girls learning how to "sideload" apps onto their device. Of course, a significant percentage of them will end up sideloading malware onto their device at the same time.

The funny aspect to me is that the senators pushing to "ban TikTok" are the same senators pushing for an "open App Store" bill. But I don't see how you can have it both ways.

Sure you can sanction TikTok. Are you going to jail every middle schooler who "does business" with them by downloading the app from unofficial sources?

Or perhaps you want to force ISPs to drop connections to TikTok servers?

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

#410

Post by sergiotapia »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #400
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.

I don't know, what did India do? I read some time ago that it got banned completely there.
Post reply on HN