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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

#171

Post by humanistbot »

lmm wrote: post #112
sschueller wrote: post #69

We need a law to generally make this illegal. Uber did the same thing and Tesla hired PIs to do it.

Laws are meaningless without enforcement, and good luck getting US law enforcement to enforce laws that they themselves are breaking routinely. We need a whole culture shift in government if we're going to have any hope of fixing this.

US states can take action, and California is. The new CPRA that takes effect Jan 1 2023 establishes a state funded agency to enforce the laws that have effectively only been able to be enforced by civil lawsuits by the people whose privacy is violated.

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

#173

Post by danrocks »

I often wonder what high-level American executives that work at these Chinese companies feel like, specially when news like this comes to life. Do they feel like they're just doing their job? Are they afraid of getting arrested? Do they think that the massive comp packages they get is worth the risk?

Lots of cognitive dissonance going on, I would bet.

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

#174

Post by jacquesm »

not2b wrote: post #96
jacquesm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do we allow our strategic enemy to have software on our phones? They make the phones. What makes you trust the hardware in the first place?

They assemble the phones would be more accurate; most of the chips are manufactured elsewhere.

Call me paranoid but giving China unrestricted access to your physical phone even before you receive it seems like an unnecessary risk to me.

It allows for all kinds of trickery regardless of where the chips are manufactured.

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

#175

Post by paulryanrogers »

Spooky23 wrote: post #170
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.

This has attention right now because of the stupid political news cycle. The South Dakota governor wants to be Sarah Palin Jr. The reality is lots of people sell this data. If you shut down tiktok, the Chinese will go buy it or otherwise obtain it from one of them.

Which is why tracking and selling such data should be illegal.

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

#176

Post by 93po »

danrocks wrote: post #173

I often wonder what high-level American executives that work at these Chinese companies feel like, specially when news like this comes to life. Do they feel like they're just doing their job? Are they afraid of getting arrested? Do they think that the massive comp packages they get is worth the risk? Lots of cognitive dissonance going on, I would bet.

They're likely very much bought into the CCP and think that their work that furthers the interests of the CCP, including the tracking of potential dissidents to their political party, is fine. You don't see American tech workers batting an eye at tracking data being used to target who was at the Jan 6 protests, and frankly I don't think they'd care if it was also used against Alex Jones if he was there in a journalistic capacity.

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

#177

Post by ironSkillet »

phpisthebest wrote: post #139
Jolter wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess there is a tacit assumption that you and the US government have some shared goals, but that you share fewer goals with ByteDance or the government of China. I guess most Americans aren’t very scared of the feds “because they have nothing to hide”, which as we know is a false sense of security in any surveillance state. But it can still be true that you have /more/ to fear from the government of China, given t…

>>tacit assumption that you and the US government have some shared goals My goal is to live my life free from abuse, coercion, and infringement of my natural rights as a living human the governments goal (be it china or US) is power, and control via the exclusive authority to initiate violence on the people with in the sphere of influence I do not share any goals with government.

Different governments have varying degrees of alignment with your goal. Despite how flawed the US govt is, I don't see how someone can think the US govt and CCP are equivalent in their misalignment with your desire.

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

#178

Post by O1111OOO »

bioemerl wrote: post #29
zug_zug wrote: post #7

I feel like this is talking out of both sides of the mouth. If the issue is that corporations aren't following data privacy laws, build the privacy into the tool at the software/ecosystem level (e.g make signup without true name / phone number / IMEI a legal requirement, signup without location sharing a legal requirement) then it'll be impossible to track journalists for both Chinese and American companies.

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.

> we have an actively hostile actor with a huge platform here in our country

I was going to say that if user is addicted to TikTok (or other hostile application) and also concerned about surveillance/tracking - they could use a dedicated burner phone with fake info, no contacts.

> I totally support broad regulation of privacy law.

I later read this from Wikipedia:

"As of January 2020, researches found that governments of 155 countries have been mandating SIM registration laws; in some countries, prepaid users must submit biometrics like photos and fingerprints."[0]

The system is broken...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prepaid_mobile_phone#Privacy_r...

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

#179

Post by paulryanrogers »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #101
zug_zug wrote: post #7

I feel like this is talking out of both sides of the mouth. If the issue is that corporations aren't following data privacy laws, build the privacy into the tool at the software/ecosystem level (e.g make signup without true name / phone number / IMEI a legal requirement, signup without location sharing a legal requirement) then it'll be impossible to track journalists for both Chinese and American companies.

Telcos can still track their customers, and who knows which three-letter agencies can get all that data. The only issue now is (it seems), that it's the chinese doing it and not facebook/google or local telcos.

> The only issue now is (it seems), that it's the chinese doing it and not facebook/google or local telcos.

No. That is also an issue, few who are informed despute the need to address those as well. There can be more than one problem in need of solving at a time.

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

#180

Post by RobotToaster »

danrocks wrote: post #173

I often wonder what high-level American executives that work at these Chinese companies feel like, specially when news like this comes to life. Do they feel like they're just doing their job? Are they afraid of getting arrested? Do they think that the massive comp packages they get is worth the risk? Lots of cognitive dissonance going on, I would bet.

They're probably too busy being rich to care.
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