TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges • Hacker News Board

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#31

Post by sneak » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:35 PM UTC

tremere wrote: post #3

I'm starting to become fatigued by all this TikTok news. Either ban the app or don't. Causing anxiety over TikTok without any action is the worst of both worlds.

The type of banning of apps you propose is state-sponsored censorship. This is done in China as a routine matter, such as with protest or VPN apps.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#32

Post by stale2002 » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:36 PM UTC

Lucasoato wrote: post #7

I would be extremely surprised if a state-actor like China couldn’t access most US company data at will. If you can invest several billions and have thousands of people working to create a breach, no company is safe, not even AWS or Microsoft. In this case, that’s even way easier, the company is Chinese, the CCP can have this access lawfully, is this something unexpected? I’m much more concerned by the laziness of mo…

> the CCP can have this access lawfully, is this something unexpected

Oh it is completely expected.

People have been warning about TikTok for years, and yet those people get called crazy.

The US should have taken action against them years ago.

We can still fix the issue now though, by creating a targeted law against them.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#33

Post by xtian » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:36 PM UTC

> "Mr. Yu observed a culture of lawlessness within the company," the suit says. "This ByteDance culture focused on growth at all costs. The attitude was to violate the law first, continue to grow, and pay fines later."

Damn these dirty communists! That's not how we do business in Silicon Valley!

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#34

Post by bioemerl » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:37 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #30

Meanwhile, the CCP can just open their huge wallets and pay US-based data-brokers for all the private information of US citizens that they ever dreamed of ...

Please don't use the fact that there are other imperfections in the system to prevent this one from getting fixed.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#35

Post by aardvarkr » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:38 PM UTC

grugagag wrote: post #19

Im more curious what tiktok data amouts to and how it could be used by CCP. I’ve heard of bans of Tiktok use by politicians and army bases and such. Without sensitive location data to some specific users but solely the young sharing memes, I wounder how CCP could use that data… Not a Tiktok user myself, if anyone could illuminate me on this it’s be great. For example does tiktok have direct messages from users to use…

Imagine that a state actor would seek to flip a foreign National to their cause. You can do so with either a carrot or a stick or both. The carrot can be fancy dinners, free vacations, or access to what they want. The carrot can be threat of exposure of deep secrets, etc. Now imagine that there is an app that has the AMAZING ability to figure out EXACTLY what you like and don’t like. You haven’t used TikTok yourself so you don’t know it firsthand but this app is uncanny in its ability to feed you stuff that only you would find fascinating that you didn’t even know about yourself. In the wrong hands it can give incredible amounts of information on an individual’s interests at a level of detail that was previously impossible

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#36

Post by pixl97 » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:40 PM UTC

grugagag wrote: post #19

Im more curious what tiktok data amouts to and how it could be used by CCP. I’ve heard of bans of Tiktok use by politicians and army bases and such. Without sensitive location data to some specific users but solely the young sharing memes, I wounder how CCP could use that data… Not a Tiktok user myself, if anyone could illuminate me on this it’s be great. For example does tiktok have direct messages from users to use…

The memes you share are a representative of you...

Lets say you're sharing a bunch of memes about being a private in the army. What is the likelihood you are actually a private in the army? Can tiktok use that to propagandize you in any way? For example, by sending you a lot of what I would consider far right propaganda that the US military is weak because it believes in 'wokeness', could this cause you to be less effective in the military?

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#37

Post by bioemerl » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:40 PM UTC

grugagag wrote: post #19

Im more curious what tiktok data amouts to and how it could be used by CCP. I’ve heard of bans of Tiktok use by politicians and army bases and such. Without sensitive location data to some specific users but solely the young sharing memes, I wounder how CCP could use that data… Not a Tiktok user myself, if anyone could illuminate me on this it’s be great. For example does tiktok have direct messages from users to use…

It's a massive platform for propaganda and mass data collection entirely without the ability for us to regulate it in an effective way without entry cutting it out of China's control

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#38

Post by WillPostForFood » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:41 PM UTC

pydry wrote: post #15

Lucasoato wrote: post #7

I would be extremely surprised if a state-actor like China couldn’t access most US company data at will. If you can invest several billions and have thousands of people working to create a breach, no company is safe, not even AWS or Microsoft. In this case, that’s even way easier, the company is Chinese, the CCP can have this access lawfully, is this something unexpected? I’m much more concerned by the laziness of mo…

I would have been unsurprised if the US government hadn't already forced them to host with Oracle a year or two ago supposedly to prevent exactly this from happening. Is Larry Ellison a Chinese spy? He would probably have to either be complicit or criminally negligent to allow this to happen given he was given the contract precisely for this reason. I'm also reminded of that fake story from the WSJ about American chi…

I would have been unsurprised if the US government hadn't already forced them to host with Oracle a year or two ago supposedly to prevent exactly this from happening.

The allegations are from 2017-18 when the guy was fired. The migration of user data was last year, but it is not like they are disconnected from China

I'm also reminded of that fake story from the WSJ about American chips being hacked that turned out to be entirely fabricated.

It was a 2018 Bloomberg story. Bloomberg still refuses to admit they were wrong, and doubled down in 2021. That no "tiny chips" have turned up yet should be near definitive proof that story was bogus.

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#39

Post by bostonsre » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:41 PM UTC

anaganisk wrote: post #20

blueflow wrote: post #12

So, basically just the China version of the US Cloud Act?

But it's the US, it's the bastion of democracy. Govt here doesn't put backdoors, doesn't sponsor crypto companies, doesn't target individuals and ship them to overseas camps to avoid torture laws. Wage fake wars. Doesn't use it's intelligence agencies to interfere with other countries. Oh!

For all our faults, we're not the ccp. Bashing America doesn't undo the horrors committed by the ccp. We're talking about an authoritarian regime that is currently committing genocide. Should we really just roll over and give them unfettered access to our markets while they are incredibly hostile to our companies and where we only get access by giving away ip?

Re: TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges

#40

Post by mistersquid » Sat, May 13, 2023, 4:42 PM UTC

grugagag wrote: post #19

Im more curious what tiktok data amouts to and how it could be used by CCP. I’ve heard of bans of Tiktok use by politicians and army bases and such. Without sensitive location data to some specific users but solely the young sharing memes, I wounder how CCP could use that data… Not a Tiktok user myself, if anyone could illuminate me on this it’s be great. For example does tiktok have direct messages from users to use…

> Without sensitive location data to some specific users but solely the young sharing memes, I wounder how CCP could use that data…

Speculation about how adversaries might advantageously use data is meaningless unless coupled with policy that allows access to such data only with binding agreements about how that data can be used.

As a general principle, I believe adversaries should not have blanket access to data of US citizens.

My belief, however, is meaningless when US powers-that-be to date show little interest in regulating data policy with respect to any business, foreign or domestic.