FCC Commissioner Calls for Apple and Google to Ban TikTok Over 'Surreptitious' Data Practices

[nastysailboat]

Man y’all love to hate everything don’t you.

 

[Freeangel1]

GREAT!! Go for it.

 

[Minxy]

Naive Americans believe Google and Facebook are not invasive but only the ‘foreign’ Chinese company is? Ridiculous, they all are intrusive. But Google should not be the one to decide to ban TikTok because this is its only competitor that is a real and tangible threat to its video platform monopoly.

 

[cuencap]

Ok, I’m all for security, privacy and all of that.

But I’m also for a secure and private attitude and lifestyle… I can’t complain about “my privacy” and then go bonkers publicly broadcasting my life online.

The magnitude of it reaching US wide security threats though… next level.


I’ll keep it to “how distracting it makes people”

There’s a way to spin this… for every minute totally wasted on a daily basis this way, is a minute of advantage for you and everybody else not on it gained for free.

Less competition for you, and seen this way, heck don’t ban it 😅

So you guys don’t ever watch tv, read websites, watch movies, watch or attend sporting events or any other form of entertainment out there? Sounds fun.

 

[cuencap]

Naive Americans believe Google and Facebook are not invasive but only the ‘foreign’ Chinese company is? Ridiculous, they all are intrusive. But Google should not be the one to decide to ban TikTok because this is its only competitor that is a real and tangible threat to its video platform monopoly.

Facebook/Meta funded smear campaigns against TikTok due to them being fearful of TikTok’s success:

Facebook hired company to discredit TikTok, report says

The firm Targeted Victory reportedly told its employees to ‘get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat’

www.independent.co.uk

 

[anthogag]

Yes, ban TikTok. 🙏

 

[FaustsHausUK]

So you guys don’t ever watch tv, read websites, watch movies, watch or attend sporting events or any other form of entertainment out there? Sounds fun.

First they came for the short form video apps, but I said nothing, because I don't use short form video apps.

 

[bpeeps]

Those are American apps so it’s fine for the US while EU countries technically are not supposed to use Microsoft Office 365, Teams or Google Analytics under GDPR either. (Schools in Germany just banned Teams for example) because the US is not considered a „save space“ for data of European citizens

AKA, I'm fine with US companies stealing my data, just not evil China. If you care about privacy (most people in this thread are just virtue signaling) you should care about everyone using your data.

Have you ever considered the possibility that people are just more aware of bad things happening in America, because it's more relevant and freely reported? And people in general are unaware of things going on out of their immediate circles.

The world doesn't revolve around America despite what Americans seem to think. Pretty easy to find news/info outside of your bubble to stay informed.

 

[bpeeps]

I am a Principal Software Engineer for a financial technology company. I doomscroll TikTok to unwind. Through it, I have found other technologists, learned DIY skills, discovered recipes and much more. It’s fine to not see the utility in an app for yourself, but blanket statements founded in your own biases say more about you.

My TikTok algorithm is plant advice, home design, editing/vfx/photoshop tutorials, and cat videos. I think most boomers who have never been on TikTok think it's just teenagers dancing.

 

[FaustsHausUK]

My TikTok algorithm is plant advice, home design, editing/vfx/photoshop tutorials, and cat videos. I think most boomers who have never been on TikTok think it's just teenagers dancing.

I'll be honest, I was very dismissive at first too. If you're not using it, it's very easy to have your perception coloured by the narrative. Some of the home design/renovation and DIY folks on there are incredible.

 

[VulchR]

It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to this. I don't use TikTok, so don't really care, but imagine if the CCP got ahold of your kid's photos and then used it to blackmail them later in life. It seems to me that this is a security risk. In addition to banning TikTok, it might be a good idea for Apple to give information in the app store about access to app data from outside of the country of use. I would never purchase an app if I knew my data was going to be accessed in the PRC.

 

[Realityck]

For years, TikTok has responded to data privacy concerns by promising that information gathered about users in the United States is stored in the United States, rather than China, where ByteDance, the video platform's parent company, is located. But according to leaked audio from more than 80 internal TikTok meetings, China-based employees of ByteDance have repeatedly accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users — exactly the type of behavior that inspired former president Donald Trump to threaten to ban the app in the United States.

Pretty bad for them.

 

[ian87w]

Dejavu. This was already taken care of with Biden cancelling Trump's decision. Brandan Carr was nominated by Trump. Maybe he still had an axe to grind?

 

[ian87w]

It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to this. I don't use TikTok, so don't really care, but imagine if the CCP got ahold of your kid's photos and then used it to blackmail them later in life. It seems to me that this is a security risk. In addition to banning TikTok, it might be a good idea for Apple to give information in the app store about access to app data from outside of the country of use. I would never purchase an app if I knew my data was going to be accessed in the PRC.

Apple probably would do nothing other than simply enforcing their own app store policies. If the evidences are solid, the FCC should just go straight to propose a ban through congress/the white house.

 

[sw1tcher]

It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to this. I don't use TikTok, so don't really care, but imagine if the CCP got ahold of your kid's photos and then used it to blackmail them later in life.

If the CCP wanted to blackmail someone using photos, they can just scrape the web like Clearview AI has been doing.

Scraping the Web Is a Powerful Tool. Clearview AI Abused It

The facial recognition startup claims it collected billions of photos from sites like Facebook and Twitter. What does the practice mean for the open web?

www.wired.com

Don't blame the CCP or TikTok when people are willingly posting personal info, pictures, and videos of themselves and others online (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Venmo, Reddit, MacRumors, etc.) for just about anyone to see.

 

[wigby]

One could only hope this time suck is banned for good

Macrumors is also a time suck. I'm not a TikTok user but the first dozen comments here all sound like seniors who criticized TV supplanting radio or smartphones supplanting computers back in the day. Keep up with tech culture or you'll die alone.

 

[wigby]

lets ban tiktok for how stupid it makes people. is there such a thing as an intelligent tiktok user?

Same can be said for macrumors forum users.

 

[wigby]

I just read that Meta has begun blocking any mention of abortion. So censorship is alive and well.

Let's gather up all the conservatives and fight this censorship with them. Oh wait...

 

[wigby]

yes, please ban it. we should not waste too much time on such short-video app.

Thanks for choosing what WE should all spend our time doing. Got any other suggestions?

 

[FindingAvalon]

Naive Americans believe Google and Facebook are not invasive but only the ‘foreign’ Chinese company is? Ridiculous, they all are intrusive. But Google should not be the one to decide to ban TikTok because this is its only competitor that is a real and tangible threat to its video platform monopoly.

And unsophisticated naive people like you can’t discern the difference between what a private company is doing and a government.

 

[antiprotest]

I always have multiple backups of my files. One on my external hard drive. One on the cloud. One with the Chinese government.

 

[M5RahuL]

I knew some smart ass would come in here with that. I mean they were fighting it with the trump administration and now they’re fully in support of it.

Brandon and his 'party' are like Samsung..

 

[miniyou64]

I am a US citizen and live in the US, but have worked overseas, and this is one of the most truthful statements that I have seen on the internet lately (maybe even in years).

American's are in general ignorant of what is really going on around them and with their own government. I've come to think that most of them never leave their gaming console, let alone their living quarters.

100%. Everyone is asleep. But we can’t have funny microvids because of National Security. Sick that people buy into the propaganda.

 

[ScottishDuck]

TikTok is a good app for curated videos and seems far better at serving you relevant content than anything else. Couldn’t care less if China is looking, America has been looking at everything for years and they’re just as bad.

 

[sw1tcher]

And unsophisticated naive people like you can’t discern the difference between what a private company is doing and a government.

How is the CCP using TikTok going to harm me any more than what private companies have already done (or should I say haven't done in regards to improving and tightening their security and safe guards)?

- T-Mobile Breach Exposed Nearly 50 Million People's Personal Data
- Personal information of 1.8 million Texans with Department of Insurance claims was exposed for years, audit says
- Former Amazon employee convicted in Capital One hack
- Over 8 million Cash App users possibly affected by data breach from a former employee
- 38 million records exposed by misconfigured Microsoft Power Apps
- Volkswagen, Audi disclose data breach impacting over 3.3 million customers
- Hackers scraped data from 500 million LinkedIn users — about two-thirds of the platform's userbase — and have posted it for sale online
- How Chinese military hackers allegedly pulled off the Equifax data breach, stealing data from 145 million Americans
- The OPM hack explained: Bad security practices meet China's Captain America
- Target's data breach: It gets worse


EDIT>>> Let's add this one to the ever-growing list

- Names, addresses of every concealed carry permit holder in California exposed, officials say