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Comment by FearlessNebula | Hacker News Reader

I really can’t stand TikTok. It sucks up so much data straight to the Chinese government, I absolutely refuse to use it. But so many good creators are starting to dabble with it, and many of my friends will send me TikTok links that I can’t open.

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This is how European's feel irregardless if the app is Chinese or American. All your data gets sucked up by some foreign nation (private industry or government, doesn't really matter).

Agreed.

And make no mistake:

- it is one of my checks when I consider who I vote for

- I do complain to relevant authorities to the best of my ability

- I am willing to put more effort and more money behind it

- I am not alone

================

For everyone who agree but haven't done anything yet, feel free to take any small step, some examples:

- contact politicins and ask them (twitter, snail mail, email, phone)

- contact local consumer protection groups

- generally be vocal about it wherever it is relevant (i.e. don't be an annoying fool): in app reviews, in a constructive way in relevant discussions in forums etc

This serves two purposes: first to make sure politicians and authorites know this is a pain point.

Secondly it also makes sure app makers gets the message.

While I will probably enjoy it too much when certain big companies get their well deserved multi million or even multi billion fines I don't generally want punishment but compliance:

I just want my alarm clock and what not that I already pay a stupid monthly fee for not to try to double dip me on top of that! (Real case, hey Alarmy! Enjoy your free advertising!)

I just don't want everyone and their dog to be aware what I disease I looked up.

Basically I just want basic decency.

Then Europe should start making their own apps.

Good, the difference is your government(s) actually make laws to stop this stuff. The US doesn't seem to give a shit.

U.S. brings the software, China brings the hardware, EU brings the regulation.

What's more interesting is the number of Europeans here in the Valley building those apps.

Is it something that's discussed in Europe?

I like Tik Tok. It's way better then any other social media out there; it doesn't have all the negativity other social media does. It's very positive, and has seemingly endless good content. I think it's likely better for a person's mental health then any other social media since it isn't fueled by negativity.

I also don't think it's data collection is any worse then any other social media's. I don't see why I should care that China has my data. I'm more scared of my own government having my data.

The negative aspect is that it's a distracting time suck and causes addictive tendencies in young people that don't have fully matured brains yet.

>I also don't think it's data collection is any worse then any other social media's. I don't see why I should care that China has my data. I'm more scared of my own government having my data.

Because China is an authoritarian regime that commits genocide against its own citizens and has done multiple other atrocious inhumane things. You should be scared.

I don't doubt your opinion...but this reads like CCP propaganda lol. As someone else mentioned....China is a human rights abusing nation state......a little different imo....but what do I know. I don't use tiktok

> It sucks up so much data straight to the Chinese government

Do you have a source for this? At least in the case of the US all user data by law must remain in the country, wouldn't surprise me if the same happened on the entirety of the EU

Seriously, does anyone have anything?

As ByteDance is headquartered in the PRC, I imagine they have to comply with whatever the CCP asks them to do. Similar to how Facebook would have to comply with a US courts subpoena for records even if it belonged to a foreign National, but worse since it’s the Party and not an independent Judiciary making such requests.

I blocked Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Tik Tok, and Snapchat on my home network. Good riddance.

If possible you could just scrape some of your favorite tik-tokers using something like this. https://github.com/drawrowfly/tiktok-scraper

I have been working on building my own client apps by reverse engineering existing apps' api and by really deciding what apps I really need. For example, I have the app for some convenience stores and I have realized that the only reason I use them is for the barcode that the app loads(turns out they use a library to generate the barcode buts its the same every time because its based on a customer ID).

So why not just print out the barcode onto a dogtag and ditch the app? Im trying to work my way through each app so then my phone has the bare minimum of of third party tracking. Facebook and Instagram are gonna be the real tough cookies but luckily I have reduced my usage significantly.

Wouldn’t it be easier to take a screenshot of the code in the app and just keep it in your photos?

Yes but this saves from having to take out the phone at all. Sorry I didn't include that context. If I can reduce pulling out my phone that is something I prefer. I am taking screenshots of the code in another app(that changes every time) and its annoying because i have to shuffle through photos and it still requires me to use the app. This is something I am still trying to figure out how I can do better.

I have a feeling like it spiked a while ago. If I listen to my teenage daughters, they're all complaining that TikTok went downhill and it's full of creeps now.

It's not like you can't find better content off social media.

> It sucks up so much data straight to the Chinese government

Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are copies of TikTok, because Facebook and Google are much safer places to have our data sucked up.

I get Google because it aggregates data, but Facebook? Isn't Facebook supposed 'leaked data' actually within Facebook API Access that any big companies could get? Facebook was poorly responsible with its user data.

You know that TikTok is no different to the rest of them. (and does the same behaviours of any other social network collecting your data which I find as a damning violation of our privacy.) How else is that 'recommendation algorithm' supposed to work, then?

Another 'algorithm' that governs and orders what can be seen and unseen for the accounts of hundreds of millions of users again. Just like YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.

Once ByteDance changes their algorithm and the users begin to complain about it, then I will point them to this comment and say, I tried to warn them but they decided to 'silence' me instead because I am right.

We'll see soon enough.

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