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[deleted] t1_iu7y4hq wrote

It is Chinese spyware. Frankly, so is Reddit so make sure you keep that VPN on.

8

80sCrackBaby t1_iu7yuc6 wrote

its Chinese spyware and is still used by millions

​

what the fuck is going on in America

117

gripofmilk t1_iu7ywva wrote

How Vine messed up and went bankrupt is still crazy to me.

27

distractionfactory t1_iu7zcqu wrote

Replying to 80sCrackBaby (#307,828)

We spent too much money on learning how to market products that are bad for people and making sure schools cranked out people susceptible to marketing strategies that make you think paying money for poison is a good way to exercise your freedom.

And now we wonder why telling people that something is bad for them isn't enough to get them to stop using it.

57

Safe_Ad5951 t1_iu7zlh6 wrote

So the thing that our intelligence agencies warned us would happen…is happening. I mean, it’s almost perfect: using our unending narcissism and need for attention to get us to willingly give over our privacy and personal data.

6

Fit-Satisfaction7831 t1_iu7zury wrote

Spoiler alert: they discover Google and Apple are primarily interested in what apps pay them for streamlined access to user data, not what they do with it.

3

Blksheep_Trading t1_iu80f7e wrote

The TOS says they re going to track you... put it on your phone and find out.

111

saanity t1_iu81v38 wrote

Cool. How about they do the same for Facebook? I'm not buying the manufactured media xenophobia disguised as privacy concerns. If we actually care about our privacy, we need to get rid of all collecting of private data.

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beware_of_redditor t1_iu825yp wrote

It’s funny tiktok gets the short end of the stick for this. Has no ever heard of google?

The amount of data and digital footprints they have on individuals is incomprehensible.

Also, especially in the US, if you have a smart phone or acess to the internet, you can be surveilled (tracked) very easily. By the government, companies/orgs, third parties, hackers… Anytime you’re out your phone is pinging cell towers, it’s tracking and storing your movement. If one looked hard enough, they can (literally) find out how many times and at what times a phones flashlight feature was turned on. TikTok isn’t helping the situation but it’s hardly anything new. Maybe people are worried it’s the Chinese, but I don’t want anyone spying on me, domestic or foreign.

38

PaladinHan t1_iu82hxh wrote

Ok, but is anyone who actually uses TikTok worth tracking anyways?

0

granoladeer t1_iu82q7f wrote

Isn't this like common sense now?

5

Street_Following6911 t1_iu83hjz wrote

Replying to -Bluedreams (#308,416)

People are conditioned to giving away their data. It's free it's fun it's what's popular. I personally don't really like the short form content but I'm probably not the demographic anyways. There are plenty of sites still out there I can look at short vids of people being idiots.

16

Kaionacho t1_iu844fe wrote

So like google, Facebook, twitter and all the other platforms? We should investigate and punish them harshly too, but we dont because they are "the good guys"

9

Short-Woodpecker-911 t1_iu8479i wrote

Remember who TF owns it!!!.🤬...How can our Government even allow them to have this TRASH in our Country? Because they both want the same Abilities! 😡 WAKE THE F UP AND STOP USING THIS TRASH!!!

−5

745395 t1_iu85c4m wrote

Replying to IllKissYourBoobies (#307,614)

Oh no, big bad red communist socialist evil China. Way scarier than America is doing to Americans by way of Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, and the entire US government. oh nooooooooo!

−7

Rageinus t1_iu85xy7 wrote

The sheeple just gobble this shit up

0

StreetCornVendor t1_iu866oc wrote

People laughed at trump when he tried blocking it.

−4

inkinkie t1_iu86hvr wrote

But we knew this would happen. We were warned tick tok was a chi com company

1

joeg26reddit t1_iu87izr wrote

Ccp spy tool and social manipulation platform

−1

mancemck t1_iu8afe8 wrote

A republican would not go to san francisco.

−2

Vannilazero t1_iu8bmsl wrote

I’ve literally uninstalled everything that can track me besides apple I know I can’t do anything against them using their product, but yeah big brother is watching

2

0wed12 t1_iu8d1zq wrote

Replying to -Bluedreams (#308,416)

From a non-american PoV, what's the difference between TikTok and Apple or Google who have their own privacy issues and have been caught selling your datas to the highest bidder?

americans are so conditionned to scapegoat their own problems to another country while their own privacy is as solid as a broken glass.

6

Red_Rabbit_Red t1_iu8etcc wrote

Replying to Honest_Palpitation91 (#308,600)

It's because Americans are afraid of anything and everything we're told to be afraid of. We're so obsessed with the great boogeyman in the east that we're ignoring the fact that the call is coming from inside the house.

10

thenerdal t1_iu8gvfp wrote

Replying to -Bluedreams (#308,416)

I'm one of the people.

Current operating systems have permissions now. Tiktok has no permissions on my end and I don't think there's been an app that has bypassed the new permission system.

Also, I read the original source to the article and all they got was the ip location, which is very vague and pretty much wrong sometimes.

So it's not that big of an issue like people here think.

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Dragonlibrarian7 t1_iu8hagd wrote

I don't know how, I don't when, but the Chinese government is going to use Tiktok ito fuck us over at some point. We should ban it now.

−1

Gropah t1_iu8igqo wrote

Replying to gripofmilk (#307,837)

From what I hear, TikTok has a very good algorithm/AI to suggest new videos. Plus, Vine began in 2013, and in those days, mobile data plans weren't as big yet (in some parts of the world).

8

esp211 t1_iu8jknn wrote

What are the chances that this gets banned in the US?

1

thenerdal t1_iu8jtnd wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#310,244)

They do have good ideas in the app though.

You can download videos and it gives you their tag. Never been done before.

You can find the original video by going to the audio source usually, never been done before.

You can Duo and stitch, I don't think this has been done before.

You can use a lot of popular songs in your videos without worrying about it being taken down.

Then you have the bonuses of filters, quick editing and a great algorithm.

Imo this makes it the best video service.

2

DisgorgeX t1_iu8ncqb wrote

You mean like every other app on your phone already does? Stop trying to make me care about China "spying on me" like that's gonna be the reason this whole thing goes down. Oh shit they got my linguine salad recipe! It's over for the USA!

I don't care. Turn off your location settings, delete your advertising ID, and quit worrying about it.

1

Weird_Cantaloupe2757 t1_iu8ooce wrote

Replying to beware_of_redditor (#308,301)

The government is more concerned about it because the CCP is an openly hostile foreign power, and them spying on Americans presents a threat to national security that Google and Facebook just don't.

I don't want anyone spying on me either, but there is a very good and justifiable reason for the government to be more concerned about TikTok.

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BreadConqueror5119 t1_iu8osg3 wrote

America already does that to American stfu bunch of fear mongers

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Playful_Art_5364 t1_iu8p122 wrote

Honestly it’ll take China invading Taiwan to get tiktok banned. Yet American companies can’t even exist in China without sucking up to the CCP.

It’s kinda a bad look for the US

1

Weird_Cantaloupe2757 t1_iu8v4t7 wrote

Replying to saanity (#312,222)

Because the global political situation has changed. We have seen how much harm Russia has been able to do to the west with disinformation, and they showed us with Ukraine that these types of hostilities need to be taken more seriously. We have a similarly adversarial relationship with China, and the last 6 years has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can't just ignore it and try to just wallpaper over it with trade.

If anything, we were seeing too little anti-CCP news before out of a naive hope that capitalism would eventually resolve these issues, but the amount of success Russia has had in subverting us shows that we ignore it at our own peril.

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goalpost_mover t1_iu8xbxz wrote

Replying to Pfandfreies_konto (#309,971)

Yeah, but this article is about TikTok. Whataboutisms only deflect from the topic.

>It's bad no matter who does it.

Agree. I'd hope the CCP shill above you says the same thing about TikTok when Facebook is mentioned.

Oh wait... 😲

~

Edit: And downvotes aren't gonna change the truth, son.

−6

Uthallan t1_iu8y9ek wrote

OK but what about American companies that have been known to be doing the very same thing for many years before tiktok?

1

asdfafdsg t1_iu8z59d wrote

Replying to Weird_Cantaloupe2757 (#311,499)

Then limit usage of the app in sensitive areas (military bases, etc) and call it a day. Everyone spies on everyone else, I'm not buying the narrative this is something regular people need to be afraid of because warmongering "think tanks" in DC said so.

1

Ash-Devil240Z t1_iu90l60 wrote

The one good thing trump ever tried to do was banning tiktok. You think dangerous viral tiktok trends happen organically? its a CCP psyop.

−1

Flame87 t1_iu91ucy wrote

Lol little know fact, every request for regulation cuts a regulatory body's budget by $1m to cut a check straight to a GOP lawmaker 😂

1

Flame87 t1_iu92ihp wrote

Americans are increasingly deciding democracy is bullshit so long as they get cheap gas anyway, so who cares whose doing the fascisting? At least Xi Jinping isn't a whiny bitch about it. 🤷

1

5474524 t1_iu94gus wrote

Replying to 0wed12 (#309,795)

Because I'd rather have an American tech company own all of my personal and sensitive data than an antagonistic, Russia/North Korea/Iran-aligned country that we could potentially go to war with within the next century. In the United States, tech companies are privately-owned and largely answer to themselves, only really answering to the United States when they're up to some shady shit - if that. In China, companies are effectively treated as a branch of the CCP at the end of the day. They aren't independent companies in the traditional sense. If the CCP wants information, these companies will gladly hand it over, because it would be against the law not to. You can't point at Apple and say "this company IS the United States government", but you can do that to a Chinese-owned company and be right about it.

The terrorism implications with the latter are scary as shit. It's not just browsing history and harmless data, it's the profile that you can put together of people using that data to allow you to eventually connect the dots to the truly dangerous information, like social security numbers, passwords, medical data, financial information, et cetera. If you have the personal information of every citizen of a foreign country, and you're able to build enough of a profile off of provided information that you can do some truly dangerous things with it, then you effectively have that country by the balls - it just becomes a matter of when/if you squeeze.

3

_SpaceTimeContinuum t1_iu96qr2 wrote

It's time for Apple and Google to remove Tik Tok from their stores.

1

isthisafinsta t1_iu97rer wrote

Replying to 80sCrackBaby (#307,828)

life is hard and shitty and I want to enjoy and easy way to watch cats and people dancing or helping teach me new things.

Our society is pathologically, insidiously lonely. We’ll take whatever we can get.

21

ColinHenrichon t1_iu98n2u wrote

Replying to -Bluedreams (#308,416)

I think it’s because we are already being tracked by American tech giants as well. Google, Meta, even Apple is guilty. People make a big deal about China doing it because it’s China, but turn a blind eye when it’s America because it’s America. The CCP can know what they want, I have nothing to hide, I’ll never go to China ever. I’m not saying we should ignore it, we shouldn’t, all I’m saying is that’s probably why many don’t care. It hasn’t effected their daily lives to negatively (yet) and what difference does it make if China or American tech giants track you. Either way you are the product they are selling.

9

Boreras t1_iu9956p wrote

Replying to Weird_Cantaloupe2757 (#313,707)

It's incredibly funny that when you're told you're not immune to propaganda, you immediately resort to "whataboutism". It's just a propaganda term to immediately shut down all critical thought and any context.

Imagine trying to tell someone they're in a cult and after every clear overlap with other cults they start crying whataboutism.

−4

f_crick t1_iu9afvz wrote

Replying to saanity (#312,222)

It’s a totalitarian state with no free press that persecutes millions of their own people. The press reporting on their crimes doesn’t mean one should support them.

20

Weird_Cantaloupe2757 t1_iu9c2gs wrote

Replying to Boreras (#315,386)

So do you think that the CCP isn't an authoritarian regime with the long term vision of taking down the west in order to become the dominant world superpower? I'm not a fan of US foreign policy, but if you think that China's vision for the world isn't worse by at least an order of magnitude, you are not paying attention. This was obvious to me 20 years ago, and I have felt the whole time since then that the US media was way too soft on the CCP, so I see the current situation as us responding to the wake up call we were given with Trump, Brexit, and Ukraine in recognizing that we can't just ignore the fact that our adversaries are adversaries anymore.

2

BoozeIsFoods t1_iu9cl94 wrote

"Reports of plans"?? It's literally right there in the TOS and permissions. It's been known since day one that the app tracked your every move.

1

mbcummings t1_iu9e9yj wrote

Locations train their AI for what?

1

Daimakku1 t1_iu9ffqt wrote

Replying to Modsda3 (#311,030)

Same, but dont give him too much credit. He only wanted to ban Tiktok because Tiktok kids trolled him by buying all the stadium seats for his campaigns and made it seem like they were going to be huge, and they turned out to be half empty. He got butthurt and wanted to ban it. Nothing the guy ever did was for the good of anyone but himself.

5

Daimakku1 t1_iu9fx01 wrote

Replying to -Bluedreams (#308,416)

People do not care as long as you entertain them. The app could literally say "We are going to spy your every move and every thing you do on your phone" and people would still agree to install it if they know its an entertaining app.

Apathy is why things are so sh*t in so many aspects of life.

1

K1nsey6 t1_iu9jjmf wrote

Lets ignore that the CIA and NSA track their own citizens, it's only an issue if big scary China does it.

0

vagabond_nerd t1_iu9khak wrote

The government is afraid of Susequehanna hedge fund, they invest a lot in TikTok and rich people hate losing money.

1

fukijama t1_iu9kjys wrote

Is there a way to fake your GPS coordinates? We can all put ourselves in odd places for them to track.

1

JmacTheGreat t1_iu9ljzm wrote

Replying to K1nsey6 (#317,406)

> war crimes

China literally has modern day concentration camps running, and people in this thread are trying to say not to be too mean to them…

Edit: this user literally believes Russia is the heroes that are defending their rights in Ukraine instead of massacring innocent civilians lol - not worth anyones time to keep engaging

2

pillbinge t1_iu9m7xv wrote

On one hand, people want companies like TikTok to be stopped. On the other, they would fight off any attempt to regulate the internet. What is it people would actually want, let alone support?

1

ugly_pizza1 t1_iu9mukw wrote

Had bad vibes from tiktok right off the bat. Glad I never got into it.

0

comfortablybum t1_iu9of4s wrote

Replying to Honest_Palpitation91 (#308,600)

These companies are using the data to sell ads to us. People think that's fine. They are also answerable to our laws and regulators. China using it to spy and manipulate politics is a different beast. The whataboutism contrarian "well Google does it too" is not a new or helpful take on this. Maybe American's fear of China collecting data can push public opinion to pass laws that will also effect Google, Apple, Facebook, Verizon, and all the other tech companies tracking us.

1

Greedence t1_iu9pb19 wrote

If the product is free then you are the product.

1

Badtrainwreck t1_iu9pin2 wrote

Even if that data was being sold to China, why would it matter if TikTok can track you or if they are just allowed to buy tracking data? The results are the same.

2

mrbaryonyx t1_iu9qs2c wrote

Replying to 745395 (#308,718)

zoomers when the thing they don't like is doing something bad: "oh my god this needs to be cancelled!"

zoomers when the thing they like is doing something bad: "who cares the american government does bad things too!"

−1

mrbaryonyx t1_iu9r1rf wrote

Replying to JmacTheGreat (#317,846)

no no you dont understand, the fact that journalists report on those means the media is trying to brainwash you

the right approach american journalists should take with Chinese atrocities is to not talk about them at all! you know, like Chinese journalists do!

1

mrbaryonyx t1_iu9r5zx wrote

ITT: "um, ever hear of google stupid American? I am very smart!"

1

K1nsey6 t1_iu9vbsu wrote

Replying to JmacTheGreat (#317,846)

But concentration camps are OK when they are called for profit prisons in the US, right? Where states are REQUIRED under contract to have a specific level of occupancy, that disproportionately target minority communities.

Most of what you THINK you know about China is manufactured for the benefit of US imperialism.

But sure, China bad.

US media reporting on China, vs reality

1

Kahemoto t1_iu9zf15 wrote

Replying to 80sCrackBaby (#307,828)

Everything you do tracks you. Put your debit/credit card into the Walmart app and then use your card at the store. The app will update to tell you what you bought even though you didn’t put your info in at the register

0

thenerdal t1_iua4x98 wrote

Replying to anotherdumbcaucasian (#310,560)

Phones don't work that way anymore. GPS is only enabled per app basis now.

And this article isn't about GPS but Ip location, which is vague and sometimes wrong.

My home ip would tell you I'm in downtown Houston when I'm not.

3

JmacTheGreat t1_iuajhmc wrote

Replying to K1nsey6 (#323,773)

Wikipedia is literally peer reviewed and constant checked and rechecked for the sake of accuracy… You are trying to compare it to like CNN/Fox lmao.

You sound like one of those people who are convinced Russia is the heroes of the Ukraine war because thats what “real media” is saying.

Edit: Damn Im right lmao

0

Boreras t1_iuakr68 wrote

Replying to Weird_Cantaloupe2757 (#315,988)

> vision of taking down the west in order to become the dominant world superpower

No, and it's pretty easy to see why because they're not constantly organising coups, installing puppet regimes, drone striking half the world, have military bases on every corner on every street, dictating what and how other countries are allowed to trade, spying on everyone, etc.

The problem is I am paying attention and looking past the enormous propaganda hose aimed at us here in the west. Any self reflecting look at the past fifty years and the above paragraph shows that Chinese foreign policy is orders of magnitudes more peaceful than the US. And you can look at how weaker countries like France, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Great Britain behave to see it's not determined by relative power either, it's ideological. China is in a better position but even compared to those weaker five its behaviour is so much better.

I mean the biggest conflict China has had in the past fifty years is a rounding error for the American rape of Vietnam, which would've been classified as one of the greatest crimes against humanity that century, if not outright genocide, had another country done it.

There is this enormous ideological pressure in the west to justify its monstrous behaviour. You desperately need others to be monstrous too, because that's been the Western policy for the past five hundred years.

> we can't just ignore the fact that our adversaries are adversaries anymore

My and your adversaries are the fucking colonial empires that have raped the planet for five centuries. Stop identifying with your monstrous masters and start caring for your equal brothers and sisters.

Besides the result is not going to be the a world dictatorship under one country as we've had the last centuries but a multipolar world. China is not able to become that dominant, plus India, Nigeria, will develop too.

−1

amnlkingdom t1_iuatw2y wrote

The tik tok challenges have always been suspicious to me. I know I would never be searching on YouTube on how to steal a Hyundai or swallow a Tide pod.

1

kragmoor t1_iuazby4 wrote

Replying to IllKissYourBoobies (#307,614)

a major tech company doing major tech company things, the only reason this has its own article is because it's a foreign company instead of one offering its data up wholesale to the us government

2

driago t1_iub4yls wrote

Delete that shit.

1

Bearet t1_iubia4x wrote

There is the running joke that this is in fact necessary because these people can get lost easily given their intellect or lack of intellect. If TikTok is so interested in their user's whereabouts, there are ways to track every single cell phone by make and model and almost from the beginning, certain activity tracking watches have been trackable via satellite. In other words, if this is what they are up to, then they are about ten years lost in the past.

1

ThisisthewayLA t1_iubpu7y wrote

Remind me why they haven’t banned tiktok yet

1

8ell0 t1_iubr6hh wrote

Too little, too late

1

brienzee t1_iubtmmt wrote

Replying to seattlesk8er (#321,042)

People don’t get the fact that all this info is already openly available to China through American companies. People don’t give a shit about their data they just wanna push China is bad. I’m not saying China is good or bad but most people’s argument against tiltok is pretty disingenuous just parroting American propaganda, TikTok is bad because it takes away market share from all the American companies that want your data, end of story.

2

benito_fusilloni t1_iubw6ej wrote

Replying to brienzee (#332,803)

People also don’t understand that China doesn’t give two shits about them and is too busy lifting their citizens out of poverty to care about the doom scrolling of the average American plummeting towards poverty.

America will sell it any way they can though.

1

Alberiman t1_iubwlfb wrote

Replying to Weird_Cantaloupe2757 (#311,499)

Oh please, like China can't just buy the exact same data from american companies? It's not like there's strict rules on this shit or how we store it, there's 0 incentive to police a Chinese company when we won't protect even a shred of privacy already

0

Alberiman t1_iubwsfu wrote

Replying to f_crick (#315,641)

And if they didn't have this app they'd just buy it from american companies instead. I guess it doesn't count as supporting totalitarian regimes if the regime puts money into american bank accounts?

1

RealPain43 t1_iubzfgy wrote

Replying to 5474524 (#314,507)

What could be harmless to you now could be dangerous to you in the distant future. We already see how old Tweets get people into trouble. You might not be a person in power now but 10 years down the line you might have some successful position and if your location data was showing you hanging out on street corners in red light districts back when you were younger then that could be used to frame you by bad actors.

1

KamikazeWaterm3lon t1_iuc0j1u wrote

Replying to Street_Following6911 (#308,472)

I mean. If you're American you were already assigned a number at birth. We carry monitoring equipment in our pocket. Big brother already has everything even if you try and keep your data private. I'm all for privacy but at that point, why even bother?

1

dakath5 t1_iucjh90 wrote

Hey looks like trump was right once again

1

whosthisguythinkheis t1_iuckult wrote

Replying to Weird_Cantaloupe2757 (#311,793)

The point is that privacy should work FOR us if it is to work at all.

The fact that TikTok can do this type of surveillance shows that the US was happy to let it happen when they were in control of the info.

The US and it’s social media companies enabled this kind of exploitation in our phones and our tech infrastructure somehow completely blindsided to the fact that any other country to exploit it too.

Now they have and suddenly it’s a big deal.

−1

monchota t1_iudsj8a wrote

Easy to fix, Ban Tik Toc.

1