There is some really good history of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) found in this Foster Garvey Cross-Border Business Law Blog post from 2018, https://www.foster.com/cross-border-business-law-blog/cfius-....
Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
31–40 of 66 posts
Re: Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost every kid at my daughter's elementary school has TikTok installed and they are all under 13. If you have an Android phone, they do basically no verification to register and then if you go to your Google Account you can see that they share your email and personal data with TikTok. This is a major COPPA violation. Does this mean Microsoft may soon be the biggest violator of COPPA in the US?
In practice, can't that easily be resolved by prompting each user to verify they are at least 13 years old, enter their age, or enter their birthday?
Enter their birthday. My son and his friends and cousins always enter the year of their birthday as 1955 so that they appear to be old men when they were under 13. They never answer honestly and it is like having a fake ID.
Microsoft used to have a Passport service that could verify a user, just add in an ID to verify age scan your driver's license or whatever and send it to Microsoft passport. It is an extra step but you don't want the kiddies looking at nudes and violence and hate speech.
Re: Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Other companies are also in talks, but Microsoft is the furthest along/having the best chance.
Almost every kid at my daughter's elementary school has TikTok installed and they are all under 13. If you have an Android phone, they do basically no verification to register and then if you go to your Google Account you can see that they share your email and personal data with TikTok. This is a major COPPA violation. Does this mean Microsoft may soon be the biggest violator of COPPA in the US?
Google accounts set up with "Family Link" (for users under 13 year old) can't use the "Sign In with Google" feature, so it's safe to assume/hide behind "Google did age verification".
Re: Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
#34Is it just me or Microsoft has a track record of ruining products they acquired?
Skype, Nokia, Minecraft, Wunderlist...
And I am afraid about fate of the GitHub ...
There is a huge list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...
how many of those survived?
Re: Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Other companies are also in talks, but Microsoft is the furthest along/having the best chance.
Almost every kid at my daughter's elementary school has TikTok installed and they are all under 13. If you have an Android phone, they do basically no verification to register and then if you go to your Google Account you can see that they share your email and personal data with TikTok. This is a major COPPA violation. Does this mean Microsoft may soon be the biggest violator of COPPA in the US?
To be clear, I think you mean "email address" when you say that TikTok has access to "email". They don't actually have access to email, and I know the distinction is well understood here but it seems most of the United States is being lead to believe that TikTok can read the contents of GMail because of some sneaky Terms of Use agreement.
Re: Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
#36> The discussions with ByteDance will build upon a notification made by Microsoft and ByteDance to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). For me, this was the first time I've actually had to do a lot of thinking about CFIUS and its implications. I definitely didn't understand the scale and impact of CFIUS before, but now I'm at least aware of the power. I'm undecided as to whether or not th…
CFIUS was also the committee that was dragged into the "scandal" concerning Uranium One (a Canadian company) and the supposed involvement of Hillary Rodham-Clinton beaten up by Fox News et al.
Re: Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
You may want to read up a bit on how lobbying works. US based companies enjoy 2 benefits when it comes to regulation: 1) “Domestic” factor which makes them immediately above suspicion of wrongdoing by the National Security apparatus and 2) Access to the legal lobbying infrastructure which they use to protect their interests. The interests of both Domestic firms (who want to neutralize a fast growing threat) and the N…
Not really sure why you need to be condescending, because what you're talking about isn't how lobbying "works" nor is it how business works in the United States. >“Domestic” factor which makes them immediately above suspicion of wrongdoing by the National Security apparatus This for example, is not true.
It definitely doesn't make them "above suspicion" but it does change which of the Federal TLAs have jurisdiction for surveillance and investigations.
Re: Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
#38Is it just me or Microsoft has a track record of ruining products they acquired? Skype, Nokia, Minecraft, Wunderlist... And I am afraid about fate of the GitHub ... There is a huge list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio... how many of those survived?
I wouldn’t say Minecraft has been ruined. Sure, it’s not been taken in a direction a lot wanted, but it’s more popular than ever now..
Re: Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
#39> The discussions with ByteDance will build upon a notification made by Microsoft and ByteDance to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). For me, this was the first time I've actually had to do a lot of thinking about CFIUS and its implications. I definitely didn't understand the scale and impact of CFIUS before, but now I'm at least aware of the power. I'm undecided as to whether or not th…
Yes, the CFIUS needs to be reexamined because its use in this case seems objectively capricious. It boggles my mind that all of this can be done with no evidence presented of wrongdoing. I understand that some aspects of cyber-security in the government are classified but there should at least be an effort to explain precisely what types of data TikTok is suspected of collecting. Instead we have Mike Pompeo giving glib answers to questions, saying that TikTok sends "personal information" to the Chinese Communist Party (operative word being "communist" I guess).
Another reason the executive branch should give detailed reasoning for their decision is to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Right now it seems like Trump is simply mad at TikTok because some users allegedly reserved tickets to his Tulsa rally in order to spoil turn out (it should be mentioned that this also was reported by the media without hard evidence).
Re: Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the US
#40The takeaways from this potential acquisition for me: - The splinternet is real - as a foreign business with US interests be aware which side of the splinternet you are positioned. (Stratechery wrote a good piece of the four way split of the internet between US, China, India and EU https://stratechery.com/2020/india-jio-and-the-four-internet... ) - While this may appear as a weird adjacency for Microsoft to go into t…
MSFT will do whatever it takes to keep that JEDI contract