Canada starts investigating TikTok over data collection from young users | Hacker News Reader

Canada starts investigating TikTok over data collection from young users

firstpost.com

71 pointselorant25 comments

> “The joint inquiry will concentrate on TikTok’s privacy policies in relation to younger users, including whether the business acquired legitimate and meaningful consent from these users for the gathering, use, and disclosure of their personal information.”

How many people, let alone kids, read the privacy policy before clicking "I Agree"?

This is nothing more than political grandstanding IMO and I hate it. I also think it's a prelude to some kind of verified identity system and that's why the big tech companies are pushing their passwordless schemes.

My biggest concern is that eventually everything will require a verified identity from one of the big tech companies and Microsoft/Google/Apple/Facebook will become the gatekeepers of everything. I wouldn't be surprised if we hit 2030 and it's considered normal to get your kid a digital ID when they're born.

Instead of pushing things towards centralized ID schemes to "protect the children," we need an outright ban on tracking, profiling, etc.. We're going to end up in a world where big tech tracks every move you make and feeds that data into crappy, over-promised "AI" systems so they can sell that data to all of the institutions that we rely on.

How great is it going to be if your kid gets profiled by AI and flagged as having a predisposition to criminal activity?

Next problem, how do we make sure tracking and profiling isn't happening under the table? Or more likely in an (most of the time) unplugged server in the back of the server room.

> … Google/Apple/Facebook will become the gatekeepers of everything.

If that comes to pass, it will likely come with legislated service and privacy guarantees.

Yes may be in EU and California, but a far fetched dream in countries like UK, US, India etc. Funny enough, India already has an ID system that requires every citizen to be enrolled in even children who also have biometrics integration. And I can guarantee you, majority dont give a damm about privacy and call anyone anti-national who point out flaws. Will just leave this here.

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/attorney-general-gets-roast...

I like how you (correctly imo) separate California from the US.

Agreed this is a prelude to some kind of India-like verified identity scheme.

The Arkansas porn site ID law is now looking like it will become the law of the land with 7 states[1] considering / about to pass very similar laws.

Once these laws are in place they are likely to swiftly be applied to many other domains with social media, and tiktok (due to young users, CCP control) as well as reddit (with their NSFW communities), easy targets as the next platforms mandated to enforce ID verification once the porn industry complies.

Once these 7 states pass these laws it seems politically very difficult to fight against these types of bills in every other state. Being for 'ID-less porn for kids" is likely not a tenable position no matter the political party.

Once this happens (or maybe already happening) Google / FB / MSFT will encourage this as regulatory compliance overhead furthers monopolies / stifles competition due to the burden if places on cash constrained upstarts with low userbases vs cash rich monopolists with vast userbases.

The end game for the United States is ID to use just about anything or at least the majority of apps that people spend their time on (social, video, search, games).

[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/02/seven-states-pus...

> India-like verified identity scheme

What are you even on about?

its inevitable, at least for massive (1M+) social networks companies. Also a development which could break some dark patterns (that make this industry financially sustainable) would be having user-data on third parties which have a government/public system which control how the data is used by corporations, after disclosing enough of their algos/systems to measure their social impacts.

Thats crazy on its own and show the inadequacy of legislators, imagine having a drug company that makes an addictive drug and dont have to disclose/(comply to) anything about it

nailed it.

This app should have been banned from both appstores when it was found to be exfiltrating all clipboard data. Insane that it's still permitted by Apple and Google after such an obvious display of malevolence.

What other explanation is there for this other than some type of china-USA (or global) conspiracy?

I suppose it’s the threat of TikTok paving the way for non App Store deployments. Reducing power of the app stores.

Or maybe it’s US companies believing they can use permission systems to tame the information flow to TikTok servers.

>What other explanation is there for this other than some type of china-USA (or global) conspiracy?

Perhaps the fact that every other major social company has been found of doing the same (Facebook and Google multiple times) and yet nothing happened to their apps, at best they got a "slap on the wrist" at times...

The focus on Tik-Tok is more about a shot in the US-China trade and geopolitical rivarly than because it's somehow unique

For me the geopolitics are a lot more adversarial than that. For ex can't use FB or Google in China why - its American espionage against Chinese citizens. The question is why America (via Apple/Google) are allowing TikTok to spy on American citizens.

The same Apple and Google (and Facebook) that have been caught doing similar shit time and again?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-priva...

https://appleinsider.com/articles/12/02/17/google_reportedly...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204880404577225...

https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/privacy-lawsuits-ac...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2022/09/22/face...

https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/22/meta-lawsuit-ios-privacy/

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2022/09/facebook-user...

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/google-says-it-doesnt-...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-privacy-l...

Who cares? Does China allow Facebook, Twitter etc within its own borders? Why not?

Is there anything unreasonable about treating China the same way it treats others?

No, just the hypocrisy of "we're doing it out of privacy concerns"

Not at all.

Privacy concerns obviously become much more critical when an aggressive foreign power is involved and is likely to weaponise the data. Particularly a country like China that operates the most sophisticated control/surveillance systems in the world on its own citizens.

The only issue here is targeting Tiktok and other gaints like Facebook and Twitter are given free pass. I don't like baptist vs bootleggers strategy.

Yes I wonder what could be motivating Tim Cook for example?

https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-tim-cook-275-billion-c...

Great, merely a few years overdue.

Yes. This is the Canadian government in a nutshell. Its like the saying "no one has been fired for choosing IBM", the government here runs on always making the safest, least boat-rocking decisions. Oftentimes, not doing anything at all. For decades on end.

I saw this described as "respectable mediocrity" which captures it perfectly.

It seems to be the lesser of the issues with ticktok. Far bigger deal is the direct channel into the brains of North Americans (especially young ones) in control of a geopolitical adversary.

The state has been collecting data on young people for decades, why should they have a monopoly, where they can choose who is going to fail in order to reinforce the states existence when kids reach adulthood and a life of crime?

Why do you think that the Canadian government shouldn't be allowed to implement laws surrounding the data acquisition and storage by private entities?

Is there some sort of clause in the Canadian charter that supports your claim?

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