"The first step in compromising massive secure data - get access to people's personal information.  Eough [sic] of it and necessary patterns exist."

Right, all that personal data that Facebook gathers. So Facebook is bad and we should ban Facebook, right?
 

Flint wrote:

 So Facebook is bad and we should ban Facebook, right?
 

So the EU is not investigating Facebook for violations of privacy?  Really?

 

focus

ok, I see, you are talking about browsers and cookies.

I don;t access TikTok in a browser

Flint wrote:

So New York Times is bad and we should ban New York Times, right?
 

  Only wild speculation and by ignoring reality would make that conclusion.  Obviously the NY Times is not operating in a nefarious manner.  However News of the World was a nefarious publication.  Made obvious by who was its top management and their strategic objective.  It no longer exists because government was not trying to subvert peoples lives or other nations.

In other nations, such organizations are protected when free speech, free markets, and other duplicities are increasing.  And so a previous (unanswered) question. 

 Are the Chinese a malicious source?  Another question that should be asked.  Answer is not necessarily obvious.

banning nyt because it does the thing you say TikTok does = "wild speculation"
banning TikTok because it does the thing you say nyt does = NOT "wild specualtion" ...???

Your argument is, "Numerous concerns with Tik Tok.  Similar concerns are found in China." ...???
Name one. Name one specific concern with TikTok.

 

Last edited by Flint (4/26/2024 12:18 pm)

I appreciate that you're making a joke, but I truly do not understand what this means.

 

Still waiting for someone to discuss potential damage created by forcing Tik Tok to be sold.

First is the American principle that makes internet most popular in some nations.  Free speech  US once was the primary motivator of free speech.  Major web sites therefore were founded or operated in the US.  This Tik Tok law contradicts what America once stood for.

Second is net neutrality.  American condemned fascist concepts that, for example, created the Great Firewall of China.  And yet now America will restrict access (like the military did to Al Jazeera during the Mission Accomplished war).

These were suggested.  But no one picked up.

Never forget what so many, who promote this Tik Tok ban, also believe.  You have no right to privacy.  It is not in the Constitution.  Same people, who openly endorse Trump's encouragement of violence and love of despot leaders, for some reason fear those same type people in China.

A Tik Tok ban corrupts (changes) some basic American principles.  And exposed some contradiction.

I think TikTok will not be sold.  It will shut down.  TikTok values its algorithm too much to let anyone else have it, and they use it in other products.

If I'm wrong, and it is sold, TikTok will sell the app only and not the algorithm, so the new owner's TikTok will be inferior.

So many only use speculation to assume they have secured their phone - by blocking cookies.  Many web sites, when no longer accessed, still leave processes operating on the system.  Long after an IP port (connection) is closed.

One need only learn about Pegasus.  And how MS13 (apparently) uses it to protect their corruption.  Pegasus is an Israeli product.  They say they only sell it to governments and other secure (approved) customers.  So why is MS13 using it for more than 5 years?

News medias remove Pegasus from phones.  Then watched it automatically reload on those phones - without connecting to any internet sites.  Even after erasing everything.

Some reporters did not even use a phone.  MS13 even got their addresses and family names by simply hacking phones of other unrelated people.  But somehow some know they are secure by even blocking all cookies.

Tik Tok  provides a highway into people's confidential information.  But then is this major tradeoff between being vulnerable, becoming a hermit, obtaining knowledge, and basic human security.  Reporters would discover pictures taken for a news story were (suspected) released by MS13 on the internet before they could get back to the office.

Pegasus (an Israeli company) refused to comment on who their customers are.  They just say, "Trust us".  We only provide this software to vetted customers.  Somehow Tik Tok can be trusted?
 

tw wrote:

glatt wrote:

  If I'm wrong, and it is sold, TikTok will sell the app only and not the algorithm, so the new owner's TikTok will be inferior.

Can new Tik Tok owners know their site is secure without source code?

 

I don't know how to answer that.  I don't pretend to be a software engineer, but I figure TikTok's current owner can sell off the branding for TikTok, all the data surrounding the users of TikTok, and all the content of the users of TikTok, and hold back the secret sauce that makes the promotion of videos so perfect.  I'm sure it would be relatively easy for them to write code that would make it all work seamlessly, so that the user wouldn't see an obvious difference in the interface, but the suggested videos are basically random instead of the addictive crack cocaine they are now.

glatt wrote:

   I don't pretend to be a software engineer, but I figure TikTok's current owner can sell off the branding for TikTok, all the data surrounding the users of TikTok, and all the content of the users of TikTok, and hold back the secret sauce that makes the promotion of videos so perfect.

The secret sauce for spyware would be back doors. That remains unknown if source code is withheld.

New Tik Tok owners will not rewrite all code from scratch.  Otherwise anyone else can create a same thing from scratch.  Taking away all Tik Tok customers.  Question remains - who controls the source code?  What is in there?

Other major media web sites are not under control of a suspected adversary.

In that same topic is another question.  How did a potential friend become a potential adversary?  Those answers found in events even back in 2000.
 

Last edited by tw (4/30/2024 10:08 am)

glatt wrote:

   ...do you, tw, think other social media applications also take user's data and share it

Not limited to social media.  It is common even in income tax programs that file your returns electronically.

Why must you file through their web site?  Why can you not file directly to the IRS?  They cannot sell data such as social security numbers.  They profit by selling other data that is legal to sell.  They cannot have you file your return directly with the IRS - electronically.  That would hurt profits.

What does Facebook, et all market?  Don't know specifically.

But recently I gave my alma mater an email address for the first time.  Suddenly junk mail on that email account at least doubled.  So much for integrity in a non-profit operation.

Again, this is fundamental to what the EU is demanding of American based social media.  They are demanding privacy concerns.  Some not found in American law.  Since right wing Republicans have said - some quite publically.  The public has no right to privacy.  It is not written in the Constitution.

Any assumption that Tik Tok could be trusted is, well, Facebook is sometimes required to protect some people.  Since Americans in their organization can become whistleblowers.    Tik Tok need not have such people.

Especially view many Chinese corporate leaders forced to work directly for the government. View what has happened to many Chinese  entrepreneurs (ie Jack Ma) in the past fifteen years.  Jailed because they tried to protect their company's integrity from government takeover.

What changed in China could have been averted (if only partially) had some idiot not destroyed the TPP.  But then people with fascist attitudes are not only in China.  They also praise the KKK, white supremacists, and Nazis.  We really need more moderates.  Which is always people who learn facts long before having an opinion.

Obviously simple answers are not honest answers.  Even an octopus could not keep trace of so many tangent to this question.