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Comment by loloquwowndueo | Hacker News Reader

Wasn’t the tiktok app lambasted for being terribly intrusive and data-collecty?

People keep saying this. But the app is actually one of the best I've encountered in terms of permissions -- it asks you for pretty much nothing up front, so if you use the app to only watch fun stuff and aren't too invested in it, then you can get by without granting the app any permissions at all!

1B users don't care. Content is amazing though!

1B users don't know.

1B users will find out the hard way just like with every social network: Data breaches.

Won’t be surprised to see it eventually happen.

I still have to experience the dire consequences of all breaches my data was leaked in. I guess the worst consequence is probably that I experienced better targeted ads (that were blocked by my ad-blocker anyway?).

I'd say 1B users don't really care, and rightly so, because really the data of which Tik-Tok videos you watch is not really something life threatening for most of them.

What would even a total and complete data breach reveal about your average user though? That Jane Doe from Billings, Montana loves (has a high interaction rate with) short cat videos, squat exercise tutorials, and relationship-oriented TikToks?

None of these 1B users upload their credit card info or social security numbers to the platform.

I don’t know how detailed their analytics are, but using TikTok does somewhat resemble some sort of psychological experiment with fast flying stimuli. It figured me out pretty quick.

Nobody's uploading their SSN or CC numbers on TikTok, so who cares?

People didn't care after the Equifax hack, and that had far more personal information.

That and the fact that the company is based in China and thus is fully beholden to any and everything that the Chinese government wants from them, without any checks and balances.

What about the US-based companies that are fully beholden to any and everything that the US government wants from them, without any checks and balances (as has been proven by Snowden, Assange, etc.)?

Please stop with the Sinophobia already

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/9/11/sinophobia-the-...

There are many great reasons to not trust US companies with our data. I for one choose not to in most cases. Hell even the California DMV sells emails and home addresses now. (I only give them a P.O. box)

American apathy on data privacy has created some real monsters, but those monsters are not comparable to the CCP.

Calling it Sinophobia dismisses it as an irrational fear.

It is largely undisputed that the CCP dragnet tracks, manipulates, and censors the most minutiae of details to actively shape and control the culture of billions of people while also disappearing millions that don't conform to be tortured and killed in concentration camps.

It should be assumed any product operating under CCP rule will at some point be covertly used to further the surveillance dominance of the CCP.

It is possible to have great respect for the Chinese people and their rich history and culture while also having a very healthy fear for giving the CCP more ways to extend their culture control goals beyond their borders.

TikTok has already been been caught censoring CCP criticism: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-...

All of this is easy to say for someone living on the 'other side of Imperialism', as Vijay Prashad beautifully says:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcX2O47NZuc

I take issue with everything you've written. You somehow still believe the words you use are themselves evidence (and it's obvious they originate from western media firms who manufacture consent - it impacts you (unconsciously) even if you consider yourself very progressive/leftist).

Who controls the world through financial imperialism? It isn't China.

Seriously, please consider a few of these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2khAmMTAjI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJLA2_Ho7X0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fahWWm7uVW8

You are linking videos to people that are celebrating the 100th anniversary of communist China. What am I missing?

There was a reddit post about it (something like "I reverse engineered TikTok and found blah blah"), but it was likely fraudulent. There was also that iOS bug with clipboard notifications. I think those were the source of most of the hubbub.

I literally use a second phone to browse things like Tiktok for this reason

Probably same as fb and insta. Just use it via browser.

(It wasn’t trusting my incognito mode when using playwright, but saving session while in iPhone mode worked)

Seems duplicitous to suggest that a web browser provides something like an anonymizing client.

A web browser prevents access to permissions like contacts, photos, location. I use Facebook and Instagram very rarely but always do so in a web browser for this very reason. It's not that it's "anonymous" since obviously I'm logged in with my own profile, but it helps to compartmentalize their access both in terms of overall permissions, and the timing of that access. Facebook can't push out an update that sends my location somewhere 24/7 if I don't have a Facebook tab open in my browser.

Exactly this. And exactly this why every page like messenger.com heavily pushes you to install native apps and/or is broken in some peculiar way that makes it barely useful.

How about just not going to Chernobyl rather than repurposing some old scuba and WW2 chemical defense gear into a hazmat suit?

I certainly don't need to justify my reasoning for using Facebook or Instagram to you, but I assure you there are some things which are easier when you have an account. Many small businesses exclusively use FB to post updated hours, for example.

I am well aware of the privacy and social issues around using those websites. Being careful and mindful with my access and the content I let them receive (e.g. limiting permissions via a browser instead of native app, not uploading my entire life to the site, not regularly interacting with the content) is how I manage my personal risk.

If you're aware of some methods Facebook is using to break out of the browser sandbox and access my content without my permission, then by all means I'm open to review any sources you may have to suggest that my mobile browser is an inappropriate tool for restricting access.

> I certainly don't need to justify my reasoning for using Facebook or Instagram to you, but I assure you there are some things which are easier when you have an account.

Of course, every deal with the devil offers something in the short term.

Tiktok doesn't work as well in the browser. I do this from time to time when someone sends me a link, but they seem to show popups after a period of time telling you to get the app. It makes it pretty hard to use casually or to search for specific content.

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