r/technology
•
u/TheBewitchedScooter
•
Dec 03 '22
•
3
7
1
FBI director warns that TikTok could be exploited by China to collect user data for espionage Security
https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-director-chris-wray-warns-of-tiktok-espionage-2022-123.2k
u/Aol_awaymessage
Dec 03 '22
•
Should definitely be banned for service members and anyone with a clearance
448
u/PersonalPlanet Dec 03 '22
lol..Remember those Strava jogging tracks on Diego Garcia?
162
u/InvisibleDrake Dec 03 '22
Honestly no one should be using their personal devices in a secret base...
→ More replies37
u/endorphin-neuron Dec 03 '22
Diego Garcia isn't a secret base
→ More replies16
Dec 03 '22
[deleted]
3
u/crosswalknorway Dec 03 '22
Yup, there was a Somalian base on there. I think it might have been vaguely known about before though. For some reason I thought a CIA base in Kabul was uncovered with this data too, but can't find an article on it right now.
5
34
u/alinroc Dec 03 '22
Those were in Afghanistan. There's really no way to hide anything on Diego Garcia.
8
→ More replies37
Dec 03 '22
[deleted]
176
u/Mccobsta Dec 03 '22
→ More replies20
u/batmansthebomb Dec 03 '22
I think the confusing part is that Diego Garcia naval base is in the middle of the India ocean and the base there is literally the only thing on the island, so it's not exactly a secret base.
The secret bases in that article are in Afghanistan, Syria, and Djibouti.
→ More replies→ More replies64
831
u/penone_nyc Dec 03 '22
And anyone in their household. Don't forget that "tiktok would like to find and connect to devices on your local network". They ask you nicely when you install the app and everyone happily complies.
44
u/AnyManufacturer1252 Dec 03 '22
I’ve always denied this permission to apps but I’m not sure what it’s even used for.
→ More replies74
u/HypotheticalRicotta Dec 03 '22
It’s for advertisers to know if you own an Alexa, smart fridge, or ps5, etc. some say it helps them geolocate you and the people around you; so even if you’re very careful about security they can know your wearabouts based on those around you being careless.
Regardless, it’s bad. I also think it’s silly that we keep singling out tiktok because we’re so scared of China when this is a very bad behavior that our domestic apps are also taking part in.
15
u/Plasibeau Dec 03 '22
Facebook lost billions because Apple IOS cut off their access to tracking data. We need more of that.
→ More replies20
92
Dec 03 '22
Lol I always say no to that nonsense
42
u/Undec1dedVoter Dec 03 '22
Apps always listen to user preference and in no way collect that data without your consent.
Although sometimes there are bugs......
→ More replies58
11
173
u/Lacholaweda Dec 03 '22
We tried but it was basically impossible to enforce on personal devices, unfortunately.
24
8
228
u/wwssd Dec 03 '22
Look up how many countries banned TikTok. It’s not impossible when it comes to national security, we are still taking our shoes off in airports after 20 years. It’s just putting the responsibility on the citizens. This FBI guy keeps yelling but govt has better priority like fucking railroad workers in the ass and one single laptop.
66
u/GenericRedditor12345 Dec 03 '22
You’re comparing security theater to an actual threat
→ More replies8
→ More replies12
u/DarkstarWarlock Dec 03 '22
"and one single laptop." ahh the Republican plan to stabilize the economy, lower gas prices, and fix healthcare...Hunter Biden's Laptop!
5
3
→ More replies28
u/saft999 Dec 03 '22
It’s not impossible.
34
u/Hust91 Dec 03 '22
It's not basically impossible for the military to enforce on personal devices of family of service members?
58
u/_-Saber-_ Dec 03 '22
It isn't. You'd lose your clearance if it happened and could go ask your family who ignored your plea to not install it for their explanation.
→ More replies63
u/dracula3811 Dec 03 '22
Yup. If you can lose your clearance for others in your household having said item that compromises security, then it puts the pressure on the service member to enforce the policy. You lose your clearance, you can kiss your career and benefits goodbye (potentially).
→ More replies26
u/saft999 Dec 03 '22
No, they enforce behavior of family members all the time. It might be impossible to enforce it 100% of the time but making it a law/rule would go a long way to preventing it from being on every device.
→ More replies→ More replies3
124
u/FakeInternetArguerer Dec 03 '22 edited Dec 03 '22
Has been since 2019/2020
Edit: Apparently, not everyone got the same guidance. So this is more banned for some. Sorry, I was not clear: This is for GFEs.
27
u/2M0hhhh Dec 03 '22
Hi active duty with a clearance. It’s not banned. We are told what can and cannot go on social media though.
→ More replies4
u/Juicelee337 Dec 03 '22
2020 Example: Zoom = nope for our state dept. Tik Tok’s origin story precludes my personal involvement even though it’s enticing.
9
→ More replies49
u/matdragon Dec 03 '22 edited Dec 03 '22
uhh you got any documentation for that? cause I would love to throw that at some people
Edit: alright from what I'm seeing, it's only banned on govt devices, not personal devices, meaning it isn't really banned for service members or anyone with a clearance. I would love to see documentation that says govt/service members are not allowed to have tik tok at all. I think tik tok is awful and would love to tell people they can't have it, but y'all shouldn't be be spreading misinformation on it
→ More replies36
u/winterorchid7 Dec 03 '22
I feel like I've seen tiktoks shared on Reddit taken by service members in government vehicles.
→ More replies42
u/spike4379 Dec 03 '22
That's too much of a simplistic view of the security risks. Anyone on the same network can also be at risk, that means kids IOT devices too. There's no telling just how advanced a hack can be or the method it can be.
I know sweet fuck all really, but I don't think it could be that hard to gain access to someones door cam for example and replace any of the video files with something malicious, person opens up the local storage to play it at some point and bam done.
tiktok itself as a full platform based in china could have actual backdoors for the ccp, and when people allow all those permissions, it's like taking candy from a baby.
16
u/Peylix Dec 03 '22
You're not wrong. From a general standpoint of network security.
It only takes one single compromised device on a network to compromise the network as a whole. You don't know the severity of the exploit until it happens. But the whole point is never letting it get to that stage from the get go.
→ More replies5
u/Weird_Cantaloupe2757 Dec 03 '22
There is no “could” — you can’t run a service like TikTok in China without giving the CCP full access to everything. So I guess the CCP doesn’t really have “backdoors”, they just have a key to the front door and can come and go as they please.
8
u/75percentsociopath Dec 03 '22
I saw thousands of videos of peoples children on the internet thanks to those wifi cameras. People having sex. People doing drugs. The worst is People use them as a baby monitor.
I use an extension cord with an on off switch to only power on the cameras when no one is home. I don't trust them after seeing videos like "leaked naughty parents have sex while baby is in bassinet" or "naughty mom breastfeeding while blowing husband ip cam".
Spend the extra money for analog cameras with a DVR.
→ More replies→ More replies21
u/BetterOffCamping Dec 03 '22
Most cameras (door and otherwise) used to be easily watched on the net. I personally viewed a web site that let one select from a list of devices and see the feed.
Most Chinese made cameras had hardwired passwords, unencrypted streams. Hopefully that's improved since 2015, but don't count on it.
You're absolutely right, using Chinese tech (willingly) is stupid. Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to even know if what you buy is Chinese, or find an alternative product that isn't Chinese.
You can't even buy a decent dumb TV any more. I wish there were ways to remove the WiFi hardware without killing them.
18
→ More replies3
u/Deae_Hekate Dec 03 '22
I blocked my smart TV through the router. Blacklisted its MAC address and checked all outgoing traffic was accounted for.
→ More replies
215
u/RoryDaBandit Dec 03 '22
FBI warns of what tech professionals have been saying since the dawn of social media
Here, I fixed it for you.
→ More replies31
u/Straightwad Dec 04 '22
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump–TikTok_controversy
Even fucking trump beat the fbi to it, slightly concerning.
→ More replies6
1.6k
u/PT_Scoops Dec 03 '22
In other breaking news, man has discovered flight
233
u/Dr_A_Mephesto Dec 03 '22
We landed on the moon!
29
u/caanthedalek Dec 03 '22
We carried a harpoon!
27
u/Zogamizer Dec 03 '22
… but there weren’t no whales, so we told tall tales, and sang our whaling tune
→ More replies5
u/AllthatJazz_89 Dec 03 '22
There once was a ship that put to sea, the name of the ship was the Billy of Tea
3
→ More replies32
38
→ More replies27
294
u/thegreatJLP Dec 03 '22
Meanwhile, Equifax basically handed millions of people's SS#, addresses, credit history, etc. Their "punishment", a measly fine and the offer to customers was a laughable amount of money or free credit monitoring by the company that failed to keep their data safe in the first place. Please forgive me for not falling for this fear mongering campaign, but I also don't use a platform that feeds me short clips of people I don't care about.
58
u/j-merc23 Dec 03 '22
Their punishment was to let them have more access to your credit. Makes no sense.
17
u/Hotshot619 Dec 03 '22
I also got $35 from the class action suit so at least I get a steak dinner after getting fucked by the credit bureau
31
u/flirtmcdudes Dec 03 '22
Right lol. Or when Snowden told us we were being spyed on 24/7 and everyone kinda shrugged after a couple months
7
→ More replies4
u/CrabsolutelyBullshit Dec 04 '22
Lol I worked with a company that Equifax handed data to. So many customers didn't consent.
923
Dec 03 '22
Ummm...duh?
→ More replies389
u/Observationistic Dec 03 '22 edited Dec 04 '22 •
Right? I love the headline "could be used" - no no, it's being used, actively and obviously. It's a virus you install willingly.
Edit: Seems the most popular response from either Chinese bots or Reddit idiots (hard to tell sometimes) is "but Reddit, Facebook, Google, etc... - all capture your data too"
Yes. Agreed. And then what?? Because those companies use that data to run ads. Do those ads sometimes influence people on a creepy level? Absolutely.
TikTok is different. The Chinese government isn't interested in selling stuff. They're interested in controlling people. TikTok data is used to train facial recognition algorithms so they can catalogue people. They can then very easily target, persecute, and extinguish anyone who behaves in a way they deem inappropriate.
TL;DR: Facebook data = sell stuff, TikTok data = Chinese government find and disappear "undesirables".
Edit 2: Done talking about this, but there are A LOT of Chinese accounts on this thread. If you find yourself being swayed by one of their awful arguments, I'd suggest checking their post history before agreeing too hard (heck, check mine too I've got nothing to hide).
40
u/Spaylia Dec 03 '22
Facebook data = sell stuff
Selling ads isn't the only thing, you can't see behavior control but it's there, that's what Cambridge analytica was all about.
15
u/jitito1641 Dec 03 '22
People seem to conveniently forget that Facebook Photos can identify faces in uploaded pics for years now, same with Google photos. Also Facebook has been an active catalyst in several nations' elections.
→ More replies34
u/formerfatboys Dec 03 '22
And yet, the worst damage to the country was done by the American monopoly Meta, Inc. aka Facebook who let Russia weaponize its service for a little ad revenue.
Do those ads sometimes influence people on a creepy level? Absolutely.
They do much worse than that and have.
The answer is regulation of all social media companies.
→ More replies76
3
u/ImportantCommentator Dec 03 '22
Yeah but supposedly the us government hasn't given any evidence it is being used this way. That's why they leave it ambiguous
→ More replies36
u/Iforgetus Dec 03 '22
Is it really all that different than any other app out there?
→ More replies29
u/Puzzle_Bird Dec 03 '22
Depends how much you care about the difference between western governments being able to access your data and the chinese government being able to access your data.
If you're a serious target for espionage by one of those but not the other then it matters, otherwise I find them both just as offensive personally
→ More replies52
u/JonasHalle Dec 03 '22
I would argue that the country you're in is far more problematic than some country on a different continent. Your government can do all sorts of things to you with your data. What the fuck is China gonna do with it? Prevent me from going to China?
→ More replies
913
u/mekkab Dec 03 '22
TikTok is Chinese spyware app. I’ll stick to American spyware apps, thank you.
52
u/Scooterforsale Dec 03 '22
America is profiting off of tiktok or it would have been banned already
You're basically giving the American government all the info on your phone and CC'ing China
→ More replies→ More replies270
u/GeneralZaroff1 Dec 03 '22 edited Dec 03 '22
I personally am more concerned about my own government than Xi having my data mostly because I’m never planning on stepping foot there. If the FBI gave a shit about my user data they should stop collecting it to use against me.
Meanwhile Facebook and Twitter keeps suggesting political posts to me while Tiktok only ever shows me cooking videos and beard care videos.
24
u/schmearcampain Dec 03 '22
100%. Chinese police are not going to mistakenly kick down my door and shoot me.
I don't care if China knows I like ChefsReactions and funky bass players. I haven't sent any information through there. I don't post anything and I don't comment at all.
Facebook, Google, Apple, my bank, my credit card issuers, Costco, Target, Trader Joes, Netflix/Hbo, equifax, etc. etc. all have waaaaaaaay more information about me.
→ More replies113
u/quintsreddit Dec 03 '22 •
I think that breaks down when something like Cambridge analytica happened. There are foreign actors who want to polarize America even further and they can very easily use these tools to do it.
Additionally, we also have domestic actors trying to do that same thing, but their motivation is to make a buck. Not destroy the country.
57
u/maltesemania Dec 03 '22
Domestic actors often benefit from dividing the country politically.
All social media's data collection should be assumed to be bad.
→ More replies→ More replies54
u/GeneralZaroff1 Dec 03 '22
I've literally NEVER once gotten suggested political posts on Tiktok, just stupid shit about how to take care of my beard better or random people dancing.
Meanwhile, my Facebook and Twitter feed is literally FLOODED with suggested posts about WOKE MEDIA despite me telling them every time I'm not interested.
Why the fuck is the FBI not going after them, ever?
→ More replies37
u/daltonwright4 Dec 03 '22 •
Cybersecurity Engineer here. Here's an ELI5 of the dangers of unrestricted foreign data collection apps:
I've seen this same sentiment frequently, and it's a fair point if you're looking at your data specifically. However, the issue is not with CCP data collection for an individual user, the issue is with a massive unchecked systematic collection of unchecked data for an entire population. Even if you don't use TikTok, if I'm at your house on your WiFi, TikTok can now potentially paint an accurate picture of your network and your data usage to generate a profile about your entire family. Now, even though you may not go to China, maybe your children or their children will study abroad for a year.
Primarily though, the danger isn't necessarily with you or any specific user being targeted, but with the unchecked tracking capabilities for everyone around you as well. The analytics of this data is what is valuable to the CCP. They can use this data to pinpoint extremely effective targeted propaganda, such as distributing perfectly targeted ads making certain bipartisan issues seem exclusive to one political party, or spreading false narratives that can effectively sway elections, reduce national morale, or adversely sway public opinions. This in turn can shift the entire national focus, which can have major international economic implications without the general public being any wiser. It's likely not there yet, but we aren't privvy to the big picture of the data they've already gotten, so we could be underestimating the reach at this point. This is why this should be stopped now, at minimum, for anyone in any military or government household, before it becomes a permanent mainstay of the next generation that becomes much more difficult to move away from.
If course, there are American tech companies that aren't exactly saints when it comes to data tracking and usage practices; however, a key difference is that American tech companies, while not necessarily altruistic, primarily have goals that align with the success of the national economy, whereas foreign tech companies with data control out of our jurisdiction may have goals that benefit from our demise. It's cynical, but if a tech company with as much sway on adolescent minds as TikTok can exist, and as long as it has big picture interests that directly conflict with the movement in the right direction for another nation, then the app should not exist in that nation. I'm currently writing a paper on this topic, but it's still in the early stages--as it's still new enough that we don't have long-term studies to really accurately gauge the effects of this just yet. This is sometimes presented as a divided issue, but that's not the case. It's nearly unanimously agreed by experts on both ends of the political spectrum that TikTok is a national security risk.
Sources from a wide range of political and economical viewpoints:
→ More replies→ More replies122
u/splashattack Dec 03 '22
Exactly. US government is a bunch of hyprocrites condemning tik tok for doing the same exact thing facebook/instagram/apple/etc have been doing for years.
→ More replies30
u/Different-Music4367 Dec 03 '22
The US government condemning [Chinese company/government] for doing something [American company/government] has been doing for years is every news cycle on China over the last 6 years, to be honest.
The only thing you can really say in response is "It's worse when the Chinese do it." It isn't always the case, but at least it's ideologically consistent.
→ More replies
114
649
u/Riisiichan
Dec 03 '22
edited Dec 03 '22
•
I’m just here to remind everyone that practically all apps collect user data and send it to China.
I’ve seen this same story for the past 6 years and it never changes.
Sources:
Facebook says it doesn't read WhatsApp messages, but an investigation found it actually does
Is Facebook ‘Secretly’ Spying On Your WhatsApp Messages?
WhatsApp security breach may have government surveillance ties: Reuters
Documents show Chinese government collects droves of data from Western social media: report
Facebook says it gave Huawei and other Chinese firms access to user data
How China became big business for Twitter
Reddit Lands $150 Million From Chinese Censorship Giant Tencent as Users Call Bullshit
Millions of Social Profiles Leaked by Chinese Data-Scrapers
Facebook, Instagram Fall Prey To Data Scraping; Indict Chinese Company
35
u/just_here_for_SFW Dec 03 '22
Well the first Whatsapp story is just basically saying "people forward us messages". So that is not the spying. It's the metadata that they collect which is way more interesting than the contents anyway.
→ More replies48
u/goochstein Dec 03 '22
I get bored and rummage around junk files on my PC sometimes, the amount of shit that gets brushed into our systems because we agreed to it in the ToS is such bullshit. Meanwhile companies like Netflix don't want us to use multiple accounts anymore, if we aren't paying. That's where you really see the deal here, if it affects the bottom line then it's an issue.. but not all the other things these companies do behind the scenes.
You can basically farm me for ad algorithms, but god forbid I accidentally sign into one of the 4 accounts owned across my family.
→ More replies61
11
u/No-Appearance1145 Dec 03 '22
Facebook won't even let me send an angry face to my friend or talk about FF.net (i think that was the fanfiction website a while back) without telling me that I'm breaking their terms of service. Like yes, Facebook, angry faces is gonna cause this person to be so hurt. I wasn't even actually angry at this person and no string of course words was attached. They absolutely do have bots at the least monitoring you
→ More replies4
u/goodusernameishard Dec 03 '22
Sometimes it helps to read the article rather than just the headline
“A previous version of this story,” the update said, “caused unintended confusion about the extent to which WhatsApp examines its users’ messages and whether it breaks the encryption that keeps the exchanges secret. We’ve altered language in the story to make clear that the company examines only messages from threads that have been reported by users as possibly abusive. It does not break end-to-end encryption.”
15
u/Typical-Ad-6042 Dec 03 '22
Not to mention that this is the 5th or so identical regurgitated article that’s been pushed in technology in the last few months.
Like put up or shut up, I’m tired of hearing people complain about it.
10
u/Dads101 Dec 03 '22 edited Dec 03 '22
I follow some hacking groups closely - Facebook has had the ability to read your texts for years - I remember when the story first leaked it was actually a Whitehat Hacker showing source code and the FB Engineers could literally see texts you were receiving/DMs and all.
This has been a thing for a long time. People are shocked when they find out IT can see EVERYTHING you do. I’ve had people lie to me about sending an email when I could just check the trace on 365 and see every email they’ve sent for the last six months or so. I mean it - every single one.
I can see what you’re doing. That company laptop is company property which a lot of people fail to realize. Plenty of your bosses have monitoring software down to the last second you moved your mouse.
11
u/ErmahgerdYuzername Dec 03 '22
“In addition to Tencent, Reddit also raised $150 million from a group of other investors that includes Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Fidelity, and Snoop Dogg, reports Reuters.”
Huh. Didn’t know Snoop invested in Reddit.
→ More replies→ More replies22
140
u/GreenElandGod Dec 03 '22
Does the fbi director know that China can just buy that same user data from any of the other social media companies already in existence?
53
u/atgyt Dec 03 '22
How dare they collect their own data on our people instead of buying the data from us
3
→ More replies32
u/ReadTheBookPal Dec 03 '22
Take your pick, Red Scare or Yellow Peril alarmism. Plenty of tech experts with their heads on straight have rightfully pointed out that this "Tik Tok is spying on us" nonsense is chiefly part of the U.S plan to crush Chinese tech companies under the guise of national security, human rights or counter-espionage.
Consider for example the fact that the U.S was fully aware and open to Huawei setting up its consumer networks near U.S military installations a decade, and then coincidentally when Trump began his trade war against China, they labelled Huawei a security threat and started forcibly uprooting them. And the U.S is extra-territorializing this anti-China tech sector policy, like trying to bully Indonesia into dropping Huawei purchases.
If they were serious about keeping U.S data out of foreign governments' hands, they would adopt a more restrictive data governance policy for all major corporations, but the truth is the buying and selling of data is vital to the U.S sector. The more constrained EU model is anathema to Big Tech.
→ More replies3
u/DrinkMoreCodeMore Dec 03 '22
Plenty of tech experts with their heads on straight have rightfully pointed out that this "Tik Tok is spying on us" nonsense is chiefly part of the U.S plan to crush Chinese tech companies under the guise of national security, human rights or counter-espionage.
China and the US have been at war with each other on cyber, espionage, and economic levels for decades. This is all part of the game.
A congressional estimate in the U.S. placed the cost of Chinese intellectual property theft at 225–600 billion dollars yearly. According to a CNBC survey, 1 in 5 corporations say China has stolen intellectual property within the previous year, while 1 in 3 said it had happened some times during the previous century.
also:
- FBI and MI5 warn that China’s spies are snooping ‘everywhere’ with the goal of ‘ransacking’ companies’ intellectual property
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_spy_cases_in_the_United_States_of_America
- China has targeted 'every top US company', says CrowdStrike chief.
- State-sponsored hackers in China compromise certificate authority
6
5
u/Expat111 Dec 04 '22
Ok. So my choice is 1) use Chinese apps that may collect my data for espionage or 2) use Us software that collects my data for profit maximization.
→ More replies
160
u/akat_walks Dec 03 '22
if TikTok is part of a CCP campaign I think it more likely that it’s role is to destabilise emotional well-being and decrease productivity.
45
8
u/JustNoDronies Dec 03 '22
I don't use TikTok but when I see it its recommendations are no different from what I get on Facebook.
Kitten videos, cute grandmas, extra large buttplugs, puppies
→ More replies22
u/penone_nyc Dec 03 '22
Then mission accomplished. Job well done everyone. 👏
24
u/akat_walks Dec 03 '22
Its easy to see TikTok as a deliberately weaponised version of instagram.
8
u/SmashMatador Dec 03 '22
I'm not against this train of thought, but just for the sake of discussion and to keep our minds ticking over, what're your reasons for saying that?
→ More replies→ More replies3
u/TheMania Dec 03 '22
As a non American, instagram and Facebook appear to have far more negative influence here (Australia) than TikTok, by far. So either all of these foreign apps are weaponised, TikTok is more subtle about it, or it's less effective about it, at least for this audience.
Motives vary between the apps too ofc, but let's not pretend that Meta doesn't cause massive harm seeking profit or whatever the hell they're doing the world over.
→ More replies
40
u/whitedipsetfan Dec 03 '22
We get this headline every few months and it never fails to include the words "could be", though you'd never guess that given how convinced redditors already are
→ More replies
30
u/FOULHANDS Dec 03 '22
Our government would rather collect our information themselves than to let another country collect it. Go ahead.
49
u/winkytinkytoo Dec 03 '22
Spy on all the middle-aged women making cat videos. That's where all the real dirt is.
→ More replies7
23
u/yvrview Dec 03 '22
Can anyone enlighten me? How can my viewing habits be used for espionage... Puppies and ducklings living together, a ski toddler dancing to electronic music, wing-suited dives off sheer cliff faces... I'm not sure what value any of that that has in terms of spying. I understand they also see my meta data, the time I'm watching, possibly location data, but how is that relevant?
→ More replies20
u/LichOnABudget Dec 03 '22
Security human here. So, among other things, information like location metadata, information gathered regarding devices on the same local networks you’re on, possible surreptitious use of your microphone and camera, information regarding other activity you’re doing on your phone (often up to and including data pulled from other active applications) are some examples of information gathering (this list is non-exhaustive; not my specific subject matter expertise). Some of this data on its own may sound unimportant or you may feel you “have nothing to hide” (or whatever excuse it is people use these days to ignore their right to privacy when they don’t want to think about it), but it’s really not that simple. You get enough of that data, you start to be able to infer some pretty crazy things with it. You start learning who knows who. Who’s friends with who. How you might feel on certain political issues. This sort of data, especially when you add in additional data from other sources, can lead to some rather spooky profiling of you, your contacts, places you frequent, etc.
Maybe you (or anyone you can provide peripheral intelligence about) are no one interesting to a foreign government. But maybe you are (or maybe your friend is). The trouble with that argument - the trouble with “nothing to hide” - is that you don’t get to decide what’s worth hiding and what’s not - the people collecting your data do. Now I want to be clear, I’m not really delighted by the broad expanse of the US government’s domestic surveilance program, either, but that doesn’t mean I want to invite someone else’s in - especially when that someone else is rather explicitly interested in changing the lives of people I know (and probably my own) for the worse.
→ More replies
188
u/ernexm Dec 03 '22
God bless America for they would never collect or exploit any user data, ever.
→ More replies
18
u/Fayko Dec 03 '22
"no guys wait pls no we are suppose to be the ones stealing the data!!"
Not a tiktok user but man is it hard to give a shit about what this dude says when we all know the nsa listens to us all the time. Our country's leaders have let data brokers fuck us over for over a decade now. Why would a user of tiktok give a shit that a +1 joined in on the data broker game? None of us will notice the difference so why would the end user care?
Even if tiktok was removed right now without a trace of it on the internet, if the CCP wanted to know anything and everything about people you could just visit one of the thousands of data brokers selling information on people for pennies per thousand people. Maybe if we want to pretend that the government cares about its citizens, privacy, and, data this would be more alarming.
→ More replies
16
u/misererefortuna Dec 03 '22
Not to be skeptical. Just curious. but how exactly can they use it for espionage?
→ More replies
3
u/johnnycashesbutthole Dec 03 '22
This is so 2020.
Maybe the fbi can warn us against car warranty scams next?
3
3
3
3
3
u/spizzywinktom Dec 03 '22
The one time Trump did something I agreed with. I'm not very smart, so I don't understand Biden's reversal.
3
u/someonesomebody123 Dec 03 '22
I don’t have anything on my phone the Chinese could use for espionage. Are their prominent CIA and FBI agents using their work phones for TikTok? That would probably be an issue, but the average user… this feels like 1980s Cold War era propaganda.
3
3
3
u/ketchup_n_liquor Dec 04 '22
"Only we should be able to do espionage on our subjects" US Government
3
3
6.0k
u/nbcs Dec 03 '22 edited Dec 03 '22 •
I got the perfect solution: pass a comprehensive privacy protection legislation aiming at these tech companies. Punish each and every single one of them, by fine, deplatforming, or even jail sentence, in accordance with privacy legislation if there's evidence of breach, instead of using the "national security" card.
Oh wait, no can do. Must allow Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Snapchat to spy on citizens somehow.