TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act • Hacker News Board

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#141

Post by jeanvalmarc » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 11:05 PM UTC

severino wrote: post #127

rdlecler1 wrote: post #55

The security implications of allowing communications on a platform that is subject to the absolute control of a foreign government, seems like a very very bad idea. That can be a lesson learned the easy way or the hard way.

Well, I'm more concerned about my platform being subject to the control of my own government. Because I don't care very much about foreign governments given I happen to be a western citizen that has nothing to do with that countries. But what about ours, do you think our government is better than theirs? For how long?

> do you think our government is better than theirs? For how long?

America has problems, but your order-of-magnitude calibration is way off if you think a concentration-camp operating (i.e. the real kind with over a million people who committed no crime and are held just for their beliefs and culture) expansionist (Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan) totalitarian (speech is monitored and punished in a "go to prison, right away" manner rather than "twitter deleted my racist shit and nothing else happened to me" way) government. So yes, occasionally ineffective democracies that value human rights and freedoms (i.e. the west) is better than the CCP government, and will continue to be better now and into the foreseeable future.

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#142

Post by SiVal » Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 11:12 PM UTC

severino wrote: post #127

rdlecler1 wrote: post #55

The security implications of allowing communications on a platform that is subject to the absolute control of a foreign government, seems like a very very bad idea. That can be a lesson learned the easy way or the hard way.

Well, I'm more concerned about my platform being subject to the control of my own government. Because I don't care very much about foreign governments given I happen to be a western citizen that has nothing to do with that countries. But what about ours, do you think our government is better than theirs? For how long?

do you think our government is better than theirs?

Can't answer specifically without knowing who "ours" and "theirs" are, but I can answer generically. Governments that hold elections where more than one genuinely competing party can win if enough voters want to vote for them are better than governments that declare themselves the rulers.

Governments that defend the rights of people to express genuinely competing opinions, regardless of who agrees or disagrees, are better than governments that use or enable coercion to silence opinions they don't want people to hear.

Governments that use pervasive surveillance to monitor and punish people for thought crimes, where having or expressing forbidden opinions is treated as an actual "crime", are worse than governments that don't.

There is clearly a spectrum, and though my Chinese relatives keep pointing out how many US institutions are coming to resemble the Marxist institutions and people resemble the Red Guards they remember, the actual government of China is still far worse. "Since we, the CCP, are the People's Gov't, there is no further need for elections, and anyone who disagrees is an Enemy of The People, needs to be discovered, and deserves to be punished for that crime."

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#143

Post by Barrin92 » Wed, Jul 01, 2020, 12:00 AM UTC

MintelIE wrote: post #140

ianmobbs wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The west offered two-way street which China declined to walk on. What?

It's pretty simple, China doesn't allow western companies access to its markets reciprocally. This isn't controversial or esoteric information. It's a well known fact.

When two parties negotiate they generally try to negotiate in their personal interest. Given how many Western companies flocked to China the access was apparently still worth it.

It's not like this is uncommon either. The US themselves did this under Hamilton's American System and Japan did it in the late 19th century when they maximized goods and technology coming in while trying to keep as much foreign influence out. It's a reasonable strategy and particularly understandable with a historical view of East-Asia, which doesn't have the best experience with opening up to Western companies.

I never really understood where the problem is because China didn't kidnap Apple's CEO and forced them to build factories in China. If Americans think whatever China offers is not worth it they're free not to participate.

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#144

Post by perfectstorm » Wed, Jul 01, 2020, 12:08 AM UTC

ebg13 wrote: post #126

perfectstorm wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I copy my password from my password manager and paste it into a different app. I can copy notes from OneNote and paste it into my email and there are many other use cases i can think of. With iOS 14 Apple is letting the user know that some app is accessing your clipboard.

All of your examples are things initiated directly by the user. There's no reason that preserving user-initiated "paste" needs to mean letting an app take what it wants.

it wasn't clear from OP. i suppose having a permission modal like Photos or Contacts will do.

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#145

Post by sukilot » Wed, Jul 01, 2020, 1:03 AM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #143

MintelIE wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty simple, China doesn't allow western companies access to its markets reciprocally. This isn't controversial or esoteric information. It's a well known fact.

When two parties negotiate they generally try to negotiate in their personal interest. Given how many Western companies flocked to China the access was apparently still worth it. It's not like this is uncommon either. The US themselves did this under Hamilton's American System and Japan did it in the late 19th century when they maximized goods and technology coming in while trying to keep as much foreign influence ou…

Sure, "American" multinational corporation managers love to play ball with CCP to make money. That doesn't mean Americans citizens love it or that American government should support it.

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#146

Post by ebg13 » Wed, Jul 01, 2020, 1:04 AM UTC

jb775 wrote: post #92

Apple manually reviews the code of every app update. Why aren't they blocking this functionality from getting released in the first place? I feel like every time I submit an app update I get questioned about why my app needs access to $xyz feature.

> manually

Do you really think so?

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#147

Post by sukilot » Wed, Jul 01, 2020, 1:08 AM UTC

jeanvalmarc wrote: post #141

severino wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I'm more concerned about my platform being subject to the control of my own government. Because I don't care very much about foreign governments given I happen to be a western citizen that has nothing to do with that countries. But what about ours, do you think our government is better than theirs? For how long?

> do you think our government is better than theirs? For how long? America has problems, but your order-of-magnitude calibration is way off if you think a concentration-camp operating (i.e. the real kind with over a million people who committed no crime and are held just for their beliefs and culture) expansionist (Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan) totalitarian (speech is monitored and punished in a "go to prison, right away…

On a per capita basis, the US has more people in prison than there are Uyghurs in Chinese camps and Chinese residents in prison combined.

The US invaded Iraq for oil colonization.

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#148

Post by sukilot » Wed, Jul 01, 2020, 1:10 AM UTC

zkid18 wrote: post #73

stronglikedan wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bit I wonder why everyone talking about one specific app? In this particular case, I think it's because the person who apparently discovered it claims that other apps "don't collect anywhere near the same amount of data that TikTok does". [0] > For what it's worth I've reversed the Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter apps. They don't collect anywhere near the same amount of data that TikTok does, and they sure…

I went trough this post earlier. Unfortunately the video has been removed for some reason. > I'm getting a lot of DM's asking me to prove the majority of this with a paper and snippets of the offending code. I have a decent amount of my notes on my other laptop that recently had a motherboard failure and the majority of that data is on the laptop's SSD. It's a macbook pro, so recovering the data isn't exactly super s…

It's hard to trust a self proclaimed computer expert who neither uploads any data to share as evidence, nor backs up any his work anywhere nor syncs to any cloud.

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#149

Post by sukilot » Wed, Jul 01, 2020, 1:13 AM UTC

godelski wrote: post #58

zkid18 wrote: post #24

Great to see another layer of transparency in ios14. Bit I wonder why everyone talking about one specific app? I see a huge bias towards TikTok in headlines "iOS 14 caught TikTok and other apps spying on the clipboard" [0] "iOS 14 beta shows apps like TikTok still spy on your iPhone" [1] There a bunch of apps like VICE, Google News, WSJ that has been caught doing exactly the same. [2] I may find the explanation why T…

> Bit I wonder why everyone talking about one specific app? I see a huge bias towards TikTok in headlines 1) TikTok is one of the most popular apps and was the second most downloaded last year [0]. Come on, they are at the top. That's why we talk about them. 2) TikTok has been caught in a lot of privacy scandals that appear to be more egregious than other apps. 3) There's a deep seated fear, and evidence, that Chines…

Obligatory xkcd on bridge jumping:

https://xkcd.com/1170/

Re: TikTok app to stop accessing user clipboards after being caught in the act

#150

Post by hnick » Wed, Jul 01, 2020, 1:47 AM UTC

I'm starting to think these devices need to provide examples when throwing up the permissions prompt. Worst case examples of what this permission can enable so that app developers might at least try to limit their requests.