TikTok banned on EU executive staff devices
wsj.com
wsj.com
Unlike say, Facebook, which is sometimes used for communication (I know several online businesses that use Facebook groups/pages for their main website-- yes I know we should have our own website but non-techy types find it easier to use FB), or Twitter for keeping up with trending topics, Tiktok has no use case?
Personally, I would ban all social media apps from official phones. But especially tiktok
Twitter can definitely be used for non-work waste of time but tiktok can't be used for for any serious work for ie politicians.
The amusing thing about this is, anyone with knowledge knows that this comment shows either you are ignorant on the topic, or you are admitting to what YOU look at on TikTok.
Regulating all comms, including personal channels, in certain high-stakes contexts is not uncommon either. Real Madrid footballers have guidelines on what they can say in their private social media, and that’s not even that high-stakes compared to EU politicians.
Hardly dystopian if you ask me. If your soul demands to post questionable BS on Tik Tok, you are spoilt for choice of careers in the modern world!
For example, our (slovenian) former president is "famous" for using instagram a lot ( [1][2] ), but since instagram is american and american three-letter agencies get the data, that's ok, but if the chinese do it, it's bad.
[1] https://www.instagram.com/borutpahor/
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/08/borut-pahor-sl...
On the other hand, a lot of people make fun of those politicians here, and post the making-fun-of videos on tiktok (and youtube, and reddit,...), so those politicians want to see them too.
I'm saying that eg. ursula von der leyen is a german CDU member (deputy leader of the party), a former minister of defence in germany, and when she stops being the president of european comission she'll probably return to germany with some big merkel-like political career in mind. So yeah, after her EU comission presidency, I can see her trying to go big in germany, and she'll need a lot of voter support to achieve that. Starting an election campaing while still in EU office is something she'll probably do.
Intra-NATO spying and Chinese/Russian spying on NATO members is gonna have very different impacts, and be treated very differently by the two parties. If you think China wasn't trying to tap Merkel's phone, I don't know what to tell you.
Yes, you expect your "unfriendly" countries to spy on you, you don't expect the friendly ones to do the same.
Didn't you see the twitter files? Do you think instagram is any better?
If you speak ill of the president of the United States… what happens? Nothing much…
Yet if you say the wrong thing on Chinese social media in China you can be arrested.
There’s quite a large difference where one is trying to prevent a terrorist attack while the other is trying to control the commoners.
> Yet if you say the wrong thing on Chinese social media in China you can be arrested.
Same in eg. britain. And again, they're in "five eyes" and get access to many things.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/arrests-for-offensive-...
> According to the Register, a total of 2,500 Londoners have been arrested over the past five years for allegedly sending “offensive” messages via social media. In 2015, 857 people were detained, up 37 per cent increase since 2010.
> Same in eg. britain. And again, they're in "five eyes" and get access to many things.
Except it's not the same thing, its broken laws on public display. No need for data collection for that. But nice attempt at trying to change from China to US to UK.
It's the exact same thing in China. We can disagree with the laws there but it's not like laws don't exist and they just do whatever. The laws are draconian but they're still laws.
It's really not the same thing.
Otherwise, either IT does not know what's on their devices at all. Or they need to install scanning software to keep track and sonehow take action as needed. So best to go at the source and start by preventing users from installing anything.
Does this feed from the illusion that bureaucrats are different species? I find this very problematic. I'm sure however I can't prove it, but I think that this is a result of the propaganda that makes you think that the society is controlled by external forces referred as "Washington", "Brussels", "Moscow" or "Beijing" on which you have no power. Especially in the west the voting rates are comically low and people speak as if they don't have power on what's happening. Why do you do that? These are just regular people who grew up among you or your parents. They definitely need social media or whatever else everyone else needs.
So, outright limiting the work phone will likely result in using two phones and using the personal one for work, for convenience.
You can talk about your policies, get feedback on proposals, etc, all on the platform.
And because the audience is different, you'll probably get a different answer on tiktok than you would on say facebook.
Communication.
Do they "need" it? No. They don't need it like they don't need Facebook, or Twitter, or any other social media apps.
> Can they not work without watching twerking videos in the background?
Either you are ignorant of TikTok -- in which case, I should point out that TT is not about watching twerking videos -- or you are just telling on yourself, which isn't a problem, to each their own.
I assume you're ignorant (which isn't a bad thing, mind you), so I'll answer by using something you said:
Yes I know we should have our own website but non-techy types use TikTok.
I'm not sure why it needs to be a right to waste time consuming information about random celebrates and people you haven't spoken to since high school.
Here the message is very clear (about tiktok, I mean) - you have no power at all over them. Or very limited. Plus, who knows what this app collects about you...
EDIT: I know it's about EU, but the principle remains the same. There is clearly more trust towards US than somewhere else...
US adtech today argues that individuals have the right to give up their privacy and personal information in exchange for creating value for others, but that that information is inherently valueless without the markets, relationships, and processes they have created.
This largely hasn't been (openly) discussed at the public policy level in the US because our lawmakers are terrified of accidentally passing a law that "kills Google". The world is getting close, which was part of the Alphabet/Google and Meta/Facebook maneuvers, as subtle entry into new markets becomes less possible.
Regardless, the gears are certainly turning on data residency. I see it every day in my day job. I don’t work in a highly regulated industry by any means, but it’s one that governments kinda care about. I don’t work in the US. And I can tell you that storing data in the US isn t the magical free pass that the average American would think it is. The US is treated like a foreign power like any other, and that risk is considered appropriately.
GDPR did a lot, true. However, there are deals between EU and US that make the data exchange possible - under certain circumstances, there is not so much you can do, even if you check all the boxes in the "right to be forgotten" and all that.
I do agree that we needed GDPR and even stronger rules for data privacy against companies making money with your data (which is what GDPR is about).
But EU vs Tiktok case is clearly about governments spying and basically collecting data they shouldn't. It's beyond "data sold for marketing purposes" which the GDPR protects you against.
This is why I think there is a "trust" or let's call it just "deal" between EU and US when it's about data used for purposes beyond marketing. From time to time you'll see the BS scandal that US is spying on EU politicians, but that's to me more of a way to sell newspapers/ads than actual politics.
Let's not forget that US helps EU governments to fight also terror attacks - how, if not with data retrieved by spying on citizens? I believe it's convenient for everyone. And don't tell me EU governments don't spy on American politicians? Sorry but I don't believe it, like AT all.
In this speecific case, honestly, I don't even understand how it's possible that government officials use tiktok on their professional phones. I myself do not install crap on my company phone! And I am a freaking nobody.
I do hope European countries continue reclaiming their privacy from the USA. Let us just hope it is with truly secure systems rather than their own backdoored ones.
[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-security-agency-spie...
No company shall get away from these fines and it doesn't matter if it is Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Given that TikTok is far worse than all of them with an atrocious history of privacy violations that if investigated, the recurring fines will be at least in the tens of millions and even nearing the hundreds of millions of euros once repeated again which will certainly happen.
They are already getting warnings from the EU of a ban [0], and have already been fined in the past by French regulators [1] so it is only a matter of time for them to get slapped with another fine in the tens of millions or even up to hundreds of millions of euros.
[0] https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-leaders-fire-warning-shot...
[1] https://www.politico.eu/article/tiktok-fined-e5m-in-french-p...
Even I, a tech-literate person, use work devices in a personal manner. Sometimes because I can't be bothered to keep them separated. Other times it's because I believe it's required. For example, I have some scripts that I execute from my synced (personal) Google drive. Why? Because I made them in my free time, and they are useful at work too.
To me I think that every company should be strictly managing work devices but I also know how much of a pain that is as well.
Depends on your industry and other security-paranoia factors. Here gmail is blocked as a potential data exfiltration risk.
In any case: key differences between gmail on a tab and an app like tiktok¹ on your phone include: your tab is far less likely to have access to your global contacts information or to other things stored on your device, isn't tracking your location and reporting it back along with your contacts list and potentially what-ever else it can read, etc.
--
[1] tiktok is far from the only risk here, just by far the most prominent one ATM
And basically the MDM requires that employees have a password set and that's about it.
There are certainly situations where there should be entirely separate work and personal devices but, in my experience, most people freely intermix usage.
There are a LOT of things that some people do in their personal time that might be considered a violation of company policy, and arguably a reason for termination, if found out by their company but are generally considered socially acceptable to do in your personal time because the company doesn't know about it and has no reasonable way or desire to find out. When you put personal apps and communications on work devices, you've now created a situation where the company may be required to know about those things and you are putting your job at risk for zero benefit.
It's frankly none of the company's business if you get utterly shithoused on the weekend and sleep with random strangers at the bar, but if the evidence (pictures/videos/social media posts) of this are now being stored on and transmitted by a company device, they may have a legal obligation or duty to inspect it to ensure that device isn't storing/transmitting confidential data they have compliance obligations for, and now they know. Now that they know, they may have an obligation to terminate you because your behavior reflects poorly on the company.
Maybe this is my US-centric worldview, because I know the EU is much less prudish, but I know that there are a lot of white collar workers in the US that smoke weed on the weekend with friends and engage in casual encounters, and yet both of these things would be considered to be morally suspect (and in the case of weed is still federally illegal, even though many states have locally decriminalized it) and are generally against company policies even when the official stance is a wink, nod, and a look away. By doing these things on a company device, you're putting it front and center and forcing the company to know about it. Your boss does not need to know about your weekend bong hits, or which clubs you go to in order to meet partners, and neither does company HR, so why are you forcing them to know?
I'm now older and much more strait-laced than I was in my youth, but I had already well-established my personal policy not to mix work and personal devices more than two decades ago. How is this a lesson people are having to re-learn?
Now on to how TikTok is a weapon clearly aimed at turning a whole generation of kids into zombies. It baffles me that "the West" is blind to that.