Reddit CEO claims TikTok app is 'fundamentally parasitic' and spyware | Hacker News Reader

Reddit CEO claims TikTok app is 'fundamentally parasitic' and spyware

usatoday.com

13 pointsfortran7712 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22430508

It's hard to make out what Huffman is referring to in particular. I'm sure TikTok tracks user behaviour on its platform but I assume so does reddit when it sells ads on its platform. As far as we know tiktok does not appear to store American user data on Chinese servers.

Parasitic is definitely what I'd call a flat out inappropriate label in particular in the context of attacking a Chinese company without much evidence to back it up. I think Sandbergs comment highlights what the real problem here is

>Sheryl Sandberg had similar comments, noting that she was concerned about the fledging video app on NBC’s “Byers Market” podcast. “They’re huge, they’re growing really quickly, they’ve gotten to bigger numbers faster than we ever did,” Sandberg said.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/27/21155845/reddit-ceo-steve...

While he may be right about TikTok, I really don't trust what Reddit is turning into either. Reddit does the same thing and tracks outbound clicks and user browsing as well.

Ok, TikTok is bad, what does that make Facebook?

Posturing by an american company to a chinese one. Reddit is just as parasitic with subreddits like /r/wallstreet bets and /r/nsfw I don't see how his argument holds any water whatsoever.

How do either of those subreddits invade the user's privacy in the way Huffman was talking about?

I don't think he read the article.

The fingerprinting for a lot of these apps is scary, Reddit included. I would like to see how much Reddit does in comparison, like other commenters mentioned.

What is the problem with WSB? They are pretty upfront about how stupid the shit is.

I haven’t been to /r/nsfw. Is there a problem with mature/adult stuff or something else?

Yeah, /r/NSFW used to be as bad as 4chan but now its just specifically geared towards men. Edit: replace "it" to be /r/NSFW

> “Because I look at that app as so fundamentally parasitic, that it’s always listening, the fingerprinting technology they use is truly terrifying, and I could not bring myself to install an app like that on my phone.”

How much fingerprinting does Reddit do? What about their mobile app? Id love to see this before I make an comparisons

Tencent, one of the biggest Chinese companies, owns 5% of Reddit, at least.

Though Byte Dance and Tencent are definitely competitors.

At some level, you could say Reddit and TikTok are too.

Oh this makes more sense. Playing each company against each other I guess.

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