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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

#81

Post by LarryMullins »

Bud wrote: post #56
partiallypro wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually liked the Trump method, which was to force them to sell the US arm to a US company and sever it from the Chinese. I don't know why that never came to fruition; it looked like it was nearly a done deal (Microsoft was the leading bidder.) Making a competitor from scratch would just open up the userbase to another state actor, though it could give a window for a Vine return.

Except that this story reveals the obvious reason this wouldn't work. How do you reliably keep that US "arm" from being co-opted? How do you make sure that the software isn't phoning home to China regardless of what the US arm does? Oracle and Walmart reportedly at that time brokered a deal to run the US arm of TikTok. Do you trust them? Walmart certainly isn't politically neutral, by any stretch. Meanwhile, Larry El…

The US Government already trusts Oracle Corp with much more than merely a social media application.

https://www.oracle.com/industries/government/us-defense/

Larry Ellison defecting to China doesn't seem like a likely scenario, I don't think he'd like life as an international fugitive, slave to a host with a history of treating their own native billionaires harshly. Barring such a flight, the US Government can get their hands on him if that becomes necessary, but I doubt it will.

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

#82

Post by 8note »

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 should do the one because it covers both cases.

A TikTok that doesn't have the ability to do bad things isn't an issue. Focusing on TikTok pretends that it's the only hostile actor with a large platform in that needs to be handled asap

You can handle Facebook and TikTok at the same time by putting in strong privacy regulations, along with all the other similar hostile actors

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

#83

Post by renonn »

shrewduser wrote: post #63
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.

personally despite all that, it seems weird that western social network / tech companies aren't able to operate in china but the reverse is fine.

[dead]

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

#84

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Bud wrote: post #61
ffssffss wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which US companies are tracking journalist locations for the Chinese government? Tesla?

The claim wasn't that they did so for the Chinese government. But Facebook, for example, did so, for its own purposes. This is just as bad. We can't really have journalism being threatened, regardless of whether it's threatened by China, or supposedly-loyal US companies.

> Facebook, for example, did so, for its own purposes. This is just as bad

It’s in a totally different league. Domestic corporation spying for commercial purposes versus a militaristic dictatorship with a track record of extrajudicial harassment.

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

#85

Post by 8note »

shrewduser wrote: post #63
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.

personally despite all that, it seems weird that western social network / tech companies aren't able to operate in china but the reverse is fine.

The west values free enterprise, association, etc. China does not.

If you want to be more like china, you can ban them, but if you think that freedom is valuable, it's you who's losing out

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

#86

Post by Adraghast »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #62
Adraghast wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The KGB has not existed for decades. If you’re going to make inflammatory statements, you should make sure you’re talking about the correct things.

Well this is naive - the KGB lives on with the same agents, same files, same buildings, same crimes - it’s just now called the FSB.

Perhaps you thought me under the impression Russia hasn’t had a state security service since the USSR collapsed, but obviously I know that. The point is that one can better cloak the warmed over Cold War paranoia they’re peddling under the guise of knowing what they’re talking about if they avoid warmed over Cold War terminology.

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

#87

Post by MisterBastahrd »

system2 wrote: post #48
Bud wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not fool ourselves. US companies have been doing the same thing, and they will continue to.

At least we can punish American companies if they do something shady.

Sure, but since we explicitly won't, I feel that a lot of this outrage is just BS. As a US citizen, I'm far more concerned with the US government knowing where I am at all times than China. We could pass a law that forbids the US government to consume any personally identifiable data from social media platforms without a warrant, but we won't.

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

#88

Post by 8note »

kranke155 wrote: post #47
bayindirh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When US bans something to protect itself, that’s OK, but when another country does it, it’s a suppression of free speech and freedoms and whatnot. Doesn’t this sound a bit off ?

We’re not in the world of what ifs and ethical debates. We are in a world where our strategic enemy has a foothold on our digital lives and will likely use it against us. This is evidence. We should treat our enemies as enemies. China doesn’t consider itself to be in a friendly competition for dominance. Neither should we.

We're in a world where Facebook has already used it's power to influence who wins western elections.

The enemy was here before TikTok has existed, china is catching up quickly to the western tools for dominance

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

#89

Post by HDThoreaun »

kranke155 wrote: post #37
h4x0rr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean there are already two american tiktok clones: insta reels and YouTube shorts

Great. Then kill it, then kill any company with Chinese origin that won’t open source it’s hardware and software to the US Government.

The American clones are garbage. The problem with protectionism is it leads to less competition and therefore worse products. If you want apps to stop tracking people just make it illegal for apps to tracks people. Country of origin is irrelelvant.

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

#90

Post by LarryMullins »

Adraghast wrote: post #86
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well this is naive - the KGB lives on with the same agents, same files, same buildings, same crimes - it’s just now called the FSB.

Perhaps you thought me under the impression Russia hasn’t had a state security service since the USSR collapsed, but obviously I know that. The point is that one can better cloak the warmed over Cold War paranoia they’re peddling under the guise of knowing what they’re talking about if they avoid warmed over Cold War terminology.

For my part, I still insist on calling British soldiers "red coats".
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