TikTok

[angrychair]

I think these TikTok concerns have been blown all out of proportion. I mean all the same information exists on YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest or any number of other websites.
I believe this is more rooted in ultra-nationalism and even plain old racism, than actual concerns for people's data.

Because if there were actual concerns about personal data and how it's distributed this would be a much different conversation and TikTok could address those concerns.

(Full disclosure: I do not have a TikTok account as I'm old and it just doesn't interest me but I understand the appeal)

[Solomon]

1. I'm confused about it. I thought the idea is there's some kind of spyware invading

our devices through tiktok. At least that is what they are implying if not outright saying it.

[angrychair]

4. Not as I understand it

The belief is they are farming their voice patterns, habits and trends and locations through the videos with the other information you have to plug in to sign up.

If they don't think Google or Apple isn't doing this they are lying to themselves.

It then boils down to the fact the parent company is in China, despite the clear effort by the US branch of TikTok in making it clear in their TOS and testimony in Congress, that no data of US citizens leaves the country. In short, the retort from Congress is they don't believe them, with no proof other than "China".

[underpants]

2. I don't get it either and I agree with you

Maybe someone here can enlighten us.

If something is free then YOU are the product as the old saying goes.

[cachukis]

3. My 14 year old grandson just told me that he sees Tik tok as

a time filler and that he should use his time more wisely. But if it is there he will use it.

My thoughts on its presence is its mining capacity.

I watched a young woman running into the waves at sunset in Hilton Head a week ago videoing herself.

My son explained she was making a Tik tok.

The information at that site revealed that the hotel was mostly vacant in February. Is that valuable?

Extrapolate that to all the videos out there.

[angrychair]

6. I get that

But Google and Facebook and YouTube and Pinterest and likely even this website gathers analytics of some kind, Google and Facebook do it overtly.

Google a restaurant you like in your area, in that results screen it will likely have a line graph related to how busy it is at different times. That is Google Analytics. Using your device check-in to give an estimate of how busy it is at different hours of the day.

[TheProle]

5. You should read a bit more about it

before leaping to accusations of jingoism and racism.

The study found that YouTube, which is owned by Google, mostly collects your personal data for its own purposes — like tracking your online search history, or even your location, to serve you relevant ads. But TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, mostly allows third-party trackers to collect your data — and from there, it’s hard to say what happens with it.

With third-party trackers, it’s essentially impossible to know who’s tracking your data or what information they’re collecting, from which posts you interact with — and how long you spend on each one — to your physical location and any other personal information you share with the app.

As the study noted, third-party trackers can track your activity on other sites even after you leave the app.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/08/tiktok-shares-your-data-more-than-any-other-social-media-app-study.html

A high-ranking official at the Department of Justice on Thursday warned against the use of the popular short-form video app TikTok, due to security concerns stemming from its ownership by a Chinese company, ByteDance.

“I don’t use TikTok and I would not advise anybody to do so because of these concerns,” said Lisa Monaco, deputy attorney general at the DOJ, speaking at an event on disruptive technologies by nation-states at the Chatham House in London.

Monaco pointed to what she called “the perils of Chinese companies being subject to Chinese national security laws.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/16/dojs-lisa-monaco-warns-against-tiktok-use-citing-security-concerns.html

[angrychair]

7. I've seen that

And sorry it still feels like jingoism and racism.
The testimony from US based TikTok executives is that US data does not leave the US. The intelligent response from Congress would be to ask TikTok to prove that with data. Not ban it.

I mean it's right there in the testimony:

due to security concerns stemming from its ownership by a Chinese company

That isn't a reason, it's an excuse and does not dissuade from the belief it's more about it's parent company being Chinese owned than it is about actual data security.

[spinbaby]

8. I've looked at TikTok

Maybe because I’m old, I just don’t get it. It’s nothing but a bunch of random short videos—cute cats, dumb "hacks," bizarre recipe ideas, that sort of thing. I could practically feel my brain cells evaporating as I watched it.

[haele]

9. Nope. It's a foreign control issue, no TikTok on Federal devices.

See, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc on Federal networks and devices are modified to be used on those devices. Modified to eliminate back doors, Trojans, tracking code, etc ..
TikTok, WeChat, and other foreign based social media apps are not allowed because of potential Cyber security disruption.
Federal Employees can have them on their private devices, just not potentially networked devices.

We in the Federal Government have been dealing with rules like this for the past decade or so.

Haele.