Hacker News Reader

Comment by FabHK | Hacker News Reader

> direct access to everyone's data and messages.

From what I understand, only to Chinese customers's data and messages (bad enough, sure, but not as bad as you say).

Depends on the company. If it’s a Chinese company like TikTok, data is stored in China and therefore property of the state. Things are about to get worse and they crack down on private companies in China.

And it’s not just Americans who worry about this. When word got out that Line was storing user data in China servers, it blew up in the news in Japan and Taiwan and went into immediate investigation. Line ended up moving Japanese user data to South Korea. Chinese aggression and Xi’s obsession with power is not just something Americans spout off in Reddit and YouTube comments. They’re a legit threat to Taiwan, Japan, Australia and India.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Line-cuts-off-ac...

TikTok is run by a US-based subsidiary of ByteDance

They have insisted “that TikTok U.S. user data is stored in Virginia, with a back-up in Singapore and strict controls on employee access.”

https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/17/tiktok-launches-a-new-info...

China's state security laws trump all "strict controls" for employees.

Which employees? The ones who aren't Chinese citizens and aren't located in China? What does China state security have to do with them?

ByteDance's Douyin product has Chinese employees that are based in China. TikTok employees are also ByteDance employees which means a ByteDance employee that passes through their "strict controls" can access whatever TikTok data they want. Even if that's a dozen Chinese nationals that can get access that's a dozen people required by Chinese law to help the state security aparatus.

I don't see any reason to give them the benefit of the doubt considering they already moderate content the Chinese government doesn't like [0] as a matter of company policy.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-...

> Depends on the company

I was referring specifically to Apple & iCloud (and I thought GP was as well).

That is what I meant. The point is that everyone talking about how this policy introduces a backdoor which can be exploited by totalitarian states are wrong.

There's no need. Apple willfully obliges local laws.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com