Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks • Hacker News Board

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#21

Post by SECProto » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:39 PM UTC

newsclues wrote: post #18

SECProto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the HN spirit, what would be the "strongest plausible interpretation" of why a public inquiry might not be the best solution? I can list a few to start: international relations, protection of sources and methods, unnecessary delay in addressing the issue, risking politicizing the apolitical institution of Elections Canada

None of those balance the harms of loss of trust in government and institutions.

Personally, I trust the relevant government institutions (Elections Canada, CSIS, etc) to know and address it properly. While more information being released would be good, I don't think a public inquiry is the right format.

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#22

Post by bitcurious » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:45 PM UTC

raesene9 wrote: post #10

So, I completely understand that gov's are concerned about an application on gov. devices being used to profile their staff. There's been plenty written about profiling people based on app. usage. The bit that somewhat surprises me is the focus on TikTok, other apps are (AFAIK) capable of the exact same thing. Is the expectation that TikTok is the only app that the Chinese government have access to? this seems a bit…

If you’re on TikTok, you’re by default granting camera, microphone, and location permissions. If you’re addicted to TikTok you’re probably opening it up every time you have a few minutes to kill, including in government offices and etc.

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#23

Post by rvz » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:47 PM UTC

raesene9 wrote: post #10

So, I completely understand that gov's are concerned about an application on gov. devices being used to profile their staff. There's been plenty written about profiling people based on app. usage. The bit that somewhat surprises me is the focus on TikTok, other apps are (AFAIK) capable of the exact same thing. Is the expectation that TikTok is the only app that the Chinese government have access to? this seems a bit…

> The bit that somewhat surprises me is the focus on TikTok, other apps are (AFAIK) capable of the exact same thing. Is the expectation that TikTok is the only app that the Chinese government have access to? this seems a bit unlikely.

I don't think it is just about 'profiling people based on app usage'. I have not seen any other social networking app that does this [0] and after suggesting that ByteDance having no access to US data outside of China, well there's this investigation. [1] [2]

> I've not seen any movement on banning those similarly.

That's because they (Facebook, Instagram, Snap, etc) have instead been fined by the regulators in the hundreds of millions. Don't want a ban? Pay a giant fine for such privacy violations like the rest of the social networking companies have done.

[0] https://futurism.com/tiktok-spy-locations-specific-americans

[1] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-...

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2022/12/22/tik...

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#24

Post by kube-system » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:49 PM UTC

raesene9 wrote: post #10

So, I completely understand that gov's are concerned about an application on gov. devices being used to profile their staff. There's been plenty written about profiling people based on app. usage. The bit that somewhat surprises me is the focus on TikTok, other apps are (AFAIK) capable of the exact same thing. Is the expectation that TikTok is the only app that the Chinese government have access to? this seems a bit…

Likely because of a combination of factors: install base + privacy concerns + governance concerns

Missing one of those factors would make something much less of a threat in practice

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#25

Post by newsclues » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:49 PM UTC

SECProto wrote: post #21

newsclues wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of those balance the harms of loss of trust in government and institutions.

Personally, I trust the relevant government institutions (Elections Canada, CSIS, etc) to know and address it properly. While more information being released would be good, I don't think a public inquiry is the right format.

I don't trust to government to police itself behind closed doors.

Secrecy is not breeding trust and unity.

But please, why isn't a public inquiry the correct format and what is the right format that will balance national security and public trust (just because you trust government, doesn't mean other reasonable people do as well, like me).

So please convince me that we shouldn't investigate this in public after the PM tried to dismiss this claiming it was racism.

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#26

Post by Spivak » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:51 PM UTC

bitcurious wrote: post #22

raesene9 wrote: post #10

So, I completely understand that gov's are concerned about an application on gov. devices being used to profile their staff. There's been plenty written about profiling people based on app. usage. The bit that somewhat surprises me is the focus on TikTok, other apps are (AFAIK) capable of the exact same thing. Is the expectation that TikTok is the only app that the Chinese government have access to? this seems a bit…

If you’re on TikTok, you’re by default granting camera, microphone, and location permissions. If you’re addicted to TikTok you’re probably opening it up every time you have a few minutes to kill, including in government offices and etc.

No you're not, what? Is this some Android nonsense because I can just deny all of that on iOS. It doesn't even have the option of requesting location permission. If you want to make a Tiktok then yeah it's gonna need the camera and mic but outside of that it has never once triggered the mic or camera indicator while not taking a video.

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#27

Post by honkler » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:53 PM UTC

raesene9 wrote: post #10

So, I completely understand that gov's are concerned about an application on gov. devices being used to profile their staff. There's been plenty written about profiling people based on app. usage. The bit that somewhat surprises me is the focus on TikTok, other apps are (AFAIK) capable of the exact same thing. Is the expectation that TikTok is the only app that the Chinese government have access to? this seems a bit…

because china.

There's no other reason besides this. American empire and its vassal states (like canada) are feeling threatened by the rise of the east.

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#28

Post by cscurmudgeon » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:56 PM UTC

honkler wrote: post #27

raesene9 wrote: post #10

So, I completely understand that gov's are concerned about an application on gov. devices being used to profile their staff. There's been plenty written about profiling people based on app. usage. The bit that somewhat surprises me is the focus on TikTok, other apps are (AFAIK) capable of the exact same thing. Is the expectation that TikTok is the only app that the Chinese government have access to? this seems a bit…

because china. There's no other reason besides this. American empire and its vassal states (like canada) are feeling threatened by the rise of the east.

Don’t understand this reasoning at all.

China bans all Western social media tech in the widest way possible for more than a decade and the minute a Western govt enacts a ban on govt devices, folks say this is unfair.

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#29

Post by voisin » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:57 PM UTC

josho wrote: post #19

voisin wrote: post #4

[flagged]

The department that sets employee phone policy is not the same department that would run an investigation on elections.

This isn’t an excuse for not having a coherent policy on our dealings with China. Either they present a threat to our democracy or they don’t. Run an inquiry and band their data harvesting apps, or don’t.

Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

#30

Post by Spivak » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:57 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #17

Makes sense also from a productivity perspective. TikTok on your work phone is like having a TV set in your office.

Y'all are weird, my team does have a TV in our pod. It's fine. We watch Twitch, one of my coworkers is really into F1 so we have races on, we've had march madness running, sometimes we put on a lo-fi stream.

When you want to be productive outside of work do you still put on the horse blinders? You must be exhausted every day after work from 8hrs of straight forced focus.