Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’ • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#221

Post by scarface74 » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #114

lovich wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding another anecdote, when I said I did not want to let work control my mobile phone, my boss told me I could figure out whether I wanted to keep the job or not

Switch jobs! Environments like that will grind down your soul. Or at least they did for mine. Perhaps I'm projecting a little, but: please don't feel like you're stuck there. It's an illusion more often than not.

Switch from a well paying job instead of just getting another cheap phone?

Of all the hills I am willing to die on, getting another phone isn’t one. Especially if they provide a credit for your cell phone.

https://www.teamblind.com/post/Amazon-Cell-Phone-Reimburseme...

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#222

Post by manojlds » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

what_ever wrote: post #173

goalieca wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like vine? Twitter bought it and killed it. The founder moved on to launch Byte https://www.byte.co/

Vine was different. I just posted this on another thread couple of days ago. > Vine was 6 second long video clips. Comparing Vine to TikTok is somewhat like comparing TikTok to YouTube videos. They are different. Lot of TikTok popularity has come from offering songs/lip syncing functionality (done better by their acquisition of musica.ly). That wouldn't have worked on 6 second Vines.

That's like saying Twitter is not Twitter because we can type more than 140 characters now.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#223

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

fastball wrote: post #90

jlarocco wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, not to defend Tik-Tok, China, or spyware in general, but it's ironic that nobody has a problem with Google, Facebook, and other American companies tracking everything people do, but when a Chinese company starts doing it, it's suddenly a big problem. But then again, TikTok probably doesn't answer their subpoenas...

Yeah the difference is that if FB violates my rights, I have some recourse. Not so if its the CCP.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#224

Post by jlarocco » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:10 PM UTC

tropdrop wrote: post #132

everfree wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What recourse do you mean, exactly?

One can successfully sue Facebook, etc. for violating privacy rights - https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/29/facebook-will-pay-550-mill...

Facebook had net income over $60 billion dollars in the 5 years that lawsuit was going on.

At that rate they can continue violating people's rights indefinitely, so I really don't see the difference.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#225

Post by c3534l » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:10 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #109

Looks like TikTok is slowly imploding. I know there's plenty of political implications and a lot of discussion here is on that (which is interesting in its own right), but I wonder if there's opportunity here for a potential competitor.

My understanding was that TikTok was basically the Chinese response to periscope and vine, which was popular, but couldn't make money. TikTok's scheme is to be spyware that even puts Facebook to shame, in a way that I'm not convinced isn't just government spyware disguised as social media where the point isn't to make a profit to begin with. If similar attempts have failed because of monetization struggles, I don't see an identical competitor emerging. We alrealy have many close substitutes.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#226

Post by broknbottle » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:10 PM UTC

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #185

hdjrklt wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me a single good social app from Google. I'll wait. It's not like they didn't try, but all of them seem to suffer from the design by committee syndrome.

What was that social network that used to be bigger than Facebook in Brazil? Orkit I think? It was something like that. Edit: Oh, I forgot the one staring me in the face—Youtube! It's no less of a social network than TikTok.

google settled a lawsuit with affinity engines after the engineer came over to google and misappropriated trade secrets. lol the irony.. Google bought youtube..

Google is completely incapable of coming up with their own successful social network.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#227

Post by hoorayimhelping » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:11 PM UTC

orblivion wrote: post #8

Sorry if I missed something obvious, but if we're at the point where the U.S. government is even contemplating banning TikTok, how come it's on Google and Apple stores at this point? They seem to be at least somewhat vigilant about spyware etc.

Because Google and Apple are private entities, and they're not beholden to the government's whims. They have relationships with citizens, who may not necessarily agree with the governments' assertions. And because the government is forced to follow a set of rules for enacting laws. Talk isn't enough to enforce will.

I think a better question to ask is, under what authority is the US government talking about banning TikTok? If there are clear security issues, or TikTok or the people running it are in violation of some US law, the onus is on the government to prove it. I haven't seen any proof of this, just a lot of hearsay.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#228

Post by xendo » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:12 PM UTC

For the context, as an Amazon employee I’m not required to access email from my mobile. The only app that I need to have is virtual pager and it doesn’t require allowing Amazon to administer my phone. Physical pagers are also an option.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#229

Post by amznthrwaway » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:12 PM UTC

maerF0x0 wrote: post #124

dvt wrote: post #109

Looks like TikTok is slowly imploding. I know there's plenty of political implications and a lot of discussion here is on that (which is interesting in its own right), but I wonder if there's opportunity here for a potential competitor.

What does tiktok have that IG stories or SnapChat does not provide? It appears to me that TikTok is just a perpetuation of exclusivity in Social Networks (the same way kids exited FB when their parents signed up) ...

TikTok is incredibly enjoyable to use even while following literally nobody.

That simply isn't true of IG, FB, SnapChat, etc.

Re: Amazon says email banning TikTok from employee phones was ‘sent in error’

#230

Post by scarface74 » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 7:15 PM UTC

scohesc wrote: post #205

btgeekboy wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't handle your phone being remotely wiped, you also can't handle it being lost, stolen, or broken. For me, it's a minor inconvenience at best, not a death sentence.

I'd rather be able to blame myself for my stupid mistakes - not be beholden to Amazon's (or whoever's) MDM profile. Especially when companies don't make it clear that "if you log into your email on your phone using this app, we install MDM, root certificates, have the ability to remote wipe, etc. etc. etc."

I saw that warning when I started to set up my phone and I immediately stopped. If anyone needs to contact me about something urgent they can do it using the work approved IM client that doesn’t require a profile to be installed.

If it does get to the point where I need to have access to my company email, I will have a separate device.

That being said, if my phone was erased, it would only be a slight inconvenience, I can restore from backup.