Applies just as well to almost any social media. The worst thing is that these apps addict one to unrealistic expectations and instant gratifications. Digital tobacco.
TikTok is unique in its control of the user experience, its use of data, and its popularity.
Best not to throw this on the pile of “well duh, it’s social media — of course it’s bad.”
TikTok is spyware. TikTok is an adversary. TikTok must be regulated. Let’s talk about TikTok in this comments section, and not zoom out like we so often do.
Your paranoia is bizarre.
Google and Facebook collect the same sorts of information, they just don't use it as much to curate your experience.
Edit: to the downvoters, do you really think that Google and Facebook don't scan images you upload to them, and save drafts of things you type into their views: email or chat window or what have you? Do you really think they're not creating a complex profile of who you are as a person? That's how ads work. "Show this ad to 20-35 year olds in [Area] with [political affiliation] and a hobby of [thing]. You gain that knowledge by reading and tracking _everything_
In what unique ways is TikTok compromising privacy that Facebook isn't that warrants the labels of "spyware" and being "the adversary?"
If a woman is seeking an abortion, is she better off using a service that collects data for the US or China?
I can't see the Chinese government selling my medical information to health insurers, but could certainly see a local company doing this.
It's very telling when it comes to topics marginally related to general idea of China (the place, the people, the culture, etc.), these so-called free thinker intellectuals seamlessly transition into Goebbel-like devices as if a switch has been flipped on.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_profile#Shadow_profile'...
>No it does not apply just as well to almost any social media.
>TikTok is unique in its control of the user experience, its use of data, and its popularity.
How so? I don't use TikTok, so I might not be aware and I would appreciate you expanding on what you're asserting here.
What is it doing different than other social media in regards to the control of user experience?
What data practices are employed which are different and worse than the other social medias? Is it just where the data is going, i.e. the 'wrong' people have the data? Or are they capturing more data than, say, FB is?
In my book there are many adversaries and TikTok is only an item in a set of adversaries. The solution is to look at the set, this is not zoom out.
There are many children who are target to pederastians in Instagram and we can also say that they should be regulated and/or take this very seriously improving their alerts.
I mean, there's also racism, sexism, white nationalism, etc. that TikTok occasionally dumps into your feed to test your engagement with it in order to improve the psychographic profile it uses to decide what to throw at you next. (To be clear, this is not hypothetical, this is my personal experience with it.)
You could say the same about the internet, even pre-broadband, as anyone who spend significant time on websites, message boards, etc during the 90s and 2000s (or earlier with Usenet, IRC, etc) could attest to. Shall we just do away with the whole thing then?
Indeed any media that gives a aspirational view of the world tends to attract the attention of those who want to preserve the status quo.