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Comment by Operyl | Hacker News Reader

Since I’ve seen this asked elsewhere:

There is a legitimate usage for these kinds of apps on some devices. Armed services recruiters tend to use various social media apps to communicate with people they are trying to recruit.

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Someone likely did a risk/benefit analysis and the analysis didn’t come out in favor of the benefits. It’s probably that simple.

In the case of Tiktok, I agree. I’m just arguing for the class of apps in general (social media applications) not for TikTok.

Given the intrusiveness of social media platforms, I think they would justify having hardware that’s air gapped from their military devices. That way they retain access to their audience, while maintaining security.

Yup, because it's easier to get around the parents' influence when they want to sell kids a line of BS.

I suppose the message that is sent here is : 'if you want to recruit you'll have to do it on Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook instead of the one Chinese based app'

Is that not fair?

Security researchers have a legitimate use of computer viruses. Behavioural analysis or whatever else.

Does your grandma have the same legitimate use case?

Depends, does your grandmother feel like learning about viruses? If so, why not.

I do not quite see that as a fair or valid comparison. Recruiters are trying to target 18 year olds, and the reality is a lot of these 18 year olds (outside of the tech field) prefer to use Snapchat, Facebook, etc to communicate. They’re not using these apps to communicate classified information.

My point is that the Navy has roles other than Recruiter.

Totally different risk assessment level on a threat actor gaining location information of a recruiter (or all recruiters) vs. location of special forces service members.

The recruiter should get a waiver, a use case like that isn't a good reason to default to allowing.

They can just use Facebook’s Lasso app instead

with recruiters you mean actual recruitment agencies[1] or in the sense of the Chinese IC recruiting foreign agents?

[1] I don't see job-recruiting being a reason to allow this app. IMO any device that is used by a public servant paid with tax-$$ should be limited to what it runs and I'd be surprised if they don't have a very strict BYOD policy for this reason. Never mind TikTok they shouldn't be running any social media apps on their phones. There are other problems with this use such as what data ends up being leaked to social media companies (regardless of where they are).

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