TikTok Collected US Users' Views on Gun Control, Abortion and Religion, US Says

wsj.com

I am really cheering for this recent TikTok crusade because there is a pretty good chance that corps like Google will get hit in the process. They, for example, surely have this kind of data, even if not explicitly materialized in some understandable scores.

Ban or sale does not imply there is an issue with the practice of collecting that data. The issue is avaliabilty and the lack of leverage since it's a foreign entity to force access into the trove of data that is collected.

Ad networks and brokers not only collect, but sell this data and nobody is pointing their fingers at the big players [1]

[1] https://adint.cs.washington.edu/

Why does it matter that it's a foreign entity? Do the local entities enjoy some form of democratic oversight, like for example the military or the police does?

… of course they do.

How do people think TikTok’s algorithm works? If they didn’t collect user beliefs, they wouldn’t be able to provide the level of engagement that they do.

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