Comment by knaik94 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by knaik94 | Hacker News Reader

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Part of the issue is that the government itself takes part in that marketplace as a seller and buyer. There's no resonable way to make laws for corporations while giving a pass to government agencies, it might be proposed but it would never pass. One of the biggest clients of Cambridge Analytica was the Trump campaign.

I became disillusioned about hoping laws pass that protect user data after watching the TikTok hearing. The congressman questioning whether TikTok tracks eye dialation as a signal for "the algorithm", and the CEO having to explain that it's used for funny face filters, gave me second hand embarrasment. It reminds me of the Facebook hearing where a congressman ask whether it was possible to ban "finsta" and the Head of Global Safety at FB reponding that it's not a product. It's people having a secondary personal account limited to specific friends. An explanation the congressman was having a hard time understanding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPZA98whQGI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGt1Ukg7q4Y

In one word, you are saying we have stupid folks in the legislature messing up the country. It is true and they have been doing that for a while …

I think I would use the word misinformed or misguided. I feel it's hard to get a clear understanding because there's a lot of performative politics. There isn't enough push back to obstructionism. There are people doing good work in legislature, but mainstream and social media tend to highlight the bad.

Regarding opinions about things like banning TikTok or protecting section 230, the divide is caused by bad technology literacy. I don't think it's fair to say it's been happening for a while, because the pace of tech development has been so much faster than legislature. The median age of the 118th congress is ~58 years old, broadband internet has only been around for the last ~20.

If they are actually just using eye dilation for funny faces, I would be shocked. It's one of those things that's pretty telling physically. Whichever congressman asked that question was NOT dumb.

It would require the camera to be on without notifying you, which isn't possible on modern OSes. Also, changes in pupil size are caused by many different things. That question is similar to asking whether heart rate can be used as a signal. They're not tracking eye dialation for funny face filters. That level of tracking requires cameras better than phone selfie ones.

"The responses can have a variety of causes, from an involuntary reflex reaction to exposure or inexposure to light—in low light conditions a dilated pupil lets more light into the eye—or it may indicate interest in the subject of attention or arousal, sexual stimulation,[3] uncertainty,[4] decision conflict,[5] errors,[6] physical activity[7] or increasing cognitive load[8] or demand."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_response

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...

He absolutely was.

He asks "Can you say with 100% certainty that TikTok does not use the phone's camera to determine whether the content that elicits a pupil dilation should be amplified by the alogorithm?"

Chew: "The only face data that we collect is when you use the filters to have sunglasses on your face, we need to know where your eyes are."

Congressman: "Why do you need to know where the eyes are if you're not seeing if they're dilated??"

Apparently I can only find primary sources of this hearing on TikTok itself, so: https://www.tiktok.com/@jamiethisyoujeffries/video/721387823...

And from the c-span youtube channel, timestamp ~2hr 14m 50s.

https://youtu.be/_E-4jtTFsO4?t=8090

You can click the three dot menu next to the share button to pull up the autogenerated transcript or offical CC on c-span, on youtube. I don't think you can search in the yt app like you can on desktop/mobile. The comments section there speaks volumes about the divide between those congressman and younger generations.

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