4 ms·

Microsoft Teams does this as well, purportedly for video calling (!?) Was there ever an explanation why the permissions are needed?

lloydatkinson 5y ago
For MS I suspect either incompetence or laziness and just checking all the permissions (because a lot of Teams seems poorly thought out and designed by committee, probably an “agile” one too). As for Tick Tock it’s obviously spyware meant for direct user identification. How anyone can use it when it’s uploading their biometric information (face, voice) to the CCP is beyond stupidity.
- andrewmd5 5y ago
  It is to support finding devices you can cast to inside the app (like conference calling boxes.)
- po1nter 5y ago
  It's TikTok* and do you have any evidence to support what you're saying or you're just pulling this from thin air?
  - filoleg 5y ago
    So far from what I’ve seen, it is mostly along the lines of “they technically can, so I assume they do.” Even when it comes to someone like me, who is very strongly anti-CCP, it definitely irks me a bit. Mostly because making strong accusations like that without any reasoning other than “they can, so they definitely do it” only makes that position look weaker and more difficult to align with. Why make up those things and accusations, when there are so many other valid points for criticism there? There is a reason for why “the boy who cried wolf” is a very commonly referenced parable.
  - lloydatkinson 5y ago
    Tick Tock, thanks.
uniqueuid 5y ago
Just did a quick search and found that teams does in fact support some sort of local-only streaming: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/microsoftteams/use-ndi-in-meetings https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/microsoftteams/use-ndi-in-m... I do trust Microsoft to collect all tracking data that's possible at all, but at least there is also a valid use case here. It's even somehow plausible that they would require this permission for any kind of video streaming - to make sure all permissions are present before someone wants to start a locally streamed call.
avnigo 5y ago
I assumed it was to gracefully deal with handoff from one device to another while in a meeting since you can start on one device and continue with another, or maybe to share your screen from another device etc. It would be nice to know why exactly certain permissions are requested; sometimes that’s done by telling you what feature it might break if you don’t grant those permissions.
- uniqueuid 5y ago
  That's a great observation - for handoff it would make much more sense to get the permission beforehand, rather than trying to stop all sorts of a/v and network processes to get the user's ok.
mschuster91 5y ago
It saves Microsoft traffic if people are in the same office building / corporate VPN and can exchange audio/video streams directly vs having to go through a MS-provided STUN/TURN intermediate server.

lloydatkinson 5y ago

For MS I suspect either incompetence or laziness and just checking all the permissions (because a lot of Teams seems poorly thought out and designed by committee, probably an “agile” one too). As for Tick Tock it’s obviously spyware meant for direct user identification. How anyone can use it when it’s uploading their biometric information (face, voice) to the CCP is beyond stupidity.

andrewmd5 5y ago
It is to support finding devices you can cast to inside the app (like conference calling boxes.)
po1nter 5y ago
It's TikTok* and do you have any evidence to support what you're saying or you're just pulling this from thin air?
- filoleg 5y ago
  So far from what I’ve seen, it is mostly along the lines of “they technically can, so I assume they do.” Even when it comes to someone like me, who is very strongly anti-CCP, it definitely irks me a bit. Mostly because making strong accusations like that without any reasoning other than “they can, so they definitely do it” only makes that position look weaker and more difficult to align with. Why make up those things and accusations, when there are so many other valid points for criticism there? There is a reason for why “the boy who cried wolf” is a very commonly referenced parable.
- lloydatkinson 5y ago
  Tick Tock, thanks.

uniqueuid 5y ago

Just did a quick search and found that teams does in fact support some sort of local-only streaming: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/microsoftteams/use-ndi-in-meetings https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/microsoftteams/use-ndi-in-m... I do trust Microsoft to collect all tracking data that's possible at all, but at least there is also a valid use case here. It's even somehow plausible that they would require this permission for any kind of video streaming - to make sure all permissions are present before someone wants to start a locally streamed call.

avnigo 5y ago

I assumed it was to gracefully deal with handoff from one device to another while in a meeting since you can start on one device and continue with another, or maybe to share your screen from another device etc. It would be nice to know why exactly certain permissions are requested; sometimes that’s done by telling you what feature it might break if you don’t grant those permissions.

uniqueuid 5y ago
That's a great observation - for handoff it would make much more sense to get the permission beforehand, rather than trying to stop all sorts of a/v and network processes to get the user's ok.

mschuster91 5y ago

It saves Microsoft traffic if people are in the same office building / corporate VPN and can exchange audio/video streams directly vs having to go through a MS-provided STUN/TURN intermediate server.