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The TikTok app may have camera access and location access. It could capture images and send them to China when it detects its on a military base without the use
by kindle-dev 5y ago
The TikTok app may have camera access and location access. It could capture images and send them to China when it detects its on a military base without the user even knowing. It’s so annoying to see “what about X” comments on every story with almost no thought put into the response.
- imwillofficial 5y agoYou nailed it
- chitowneats 5y agoDid you watch the video? Someone is clearly recording this object intentionally. The camera pans and zooms to follow the truck. Whether this is secretly being sent to China via TikTok is somewhat irrelevant if an individual is breaking protocol by intentionally taking video on their smartphone.
- kindle-dev 5y agoI was responding to the comment asking why TikTok should be banned vs. other social media.
- chitowneats 5y agoYes. I was agreeing with the parent comment that the social media platform is irrelevant. Presumably, video taken of secret military hardware is not ok in any circumstance. It's the smartphone, the attached camera, and the individual that is at fault.
- beezle 5y agoI suppose then that it is OK for foreign governments to ban FB, Insta, etc? After all, we all know what lengths the US via NSA will go to.
- wonnage 5y agoIt is and it's stupid that Americans insist on their companies running with unfettered access to every country like it's some unalienable right
- sodality2 5y agoI think so, yeah. After all, I want it banned here too :p
- kindle-dev 5y agoYes, of course it's ok. The role of a government is to do what is in the best interest of its citizens. If there is a possible threat from a foreign adversary, the government should deal with it.
- fragmede 5y agoThere's a difference between the government banning an app from a country entirely, and banning anyone in their military from using an app or even a smart phone or anything with a camera, especially inside a military base!
- emkoemko 5y agoin China they don't just ban apps they ban military from even driving a Tesla.
- kbenson 5y agoWhile Tiktok is technically slightly worse, focusing on that rather than the gaping real problem of publicly posting top secret info is missing the forest for the trees. Solve the problem of people posting this to social media and it won't matter if the company is US owned and operated or foreign owned and operated because neither will have anything to work with.
- kindle-dev 5y agoI think you're missing the forest for the trees. Publicly posting confidential information is definitely bad. Bringing a device that can covertly collect information for adversaries is even worse.
- kbenson 5y ago> I think you're missing the forest for the trees. Publicly posting confidential information is definitely bad. Bringing a device that can covertly collect enemies for adversaries is even worse. If you aren't posting top secret data, you also aren't sharing it with enemies on accident.
- elmomle 5y agoHow certain are you that TikTok only gathers data of any kind when you, the user, ask it to?
- chrischen 5y agoPretty sure iOS security policy mitigates this unless they are Zero-daying something.
- themacguffinman 5y agoWho is disputing that you shouldn't share secret information on social networks? TikTok's ties still changes the potential impact of this breach. That's relevant information that gives context to the basic facts of the case that we usually call "the news".
- blunte 5y agoOn a base with top secret information, I'm amazed there would be private phones in operation there. The government may be pretty stupid about some things, but they absolutely know the 1000+ threat vectors within modern mobile phones.
- adolph 5y agoBeen an issue for a while https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracki...
- est31 5y agoThe permissions of the app are one thing, whether the app does it is another. In theory what you say would be possible, yes, but does the TikTok app have a feature which allows remote enabling of the camera, i.e. without user interaction? The code is public and can be decompiled. TikTok is not in charge of application distribution either, Google is, so if they add such a feature, people might notice.
- kindle-dev 5y agoModern apps are obfuscated and use certificate pinning to avoid network traffic introspection. It's really not simple to decompile an app into something understandable.
- BelenusMordred 5y agohttps://github.com/shroudedcode/apk-mitm https://github.com/shroudedcode/apk-mitm Removes certificate pinning from apk files for mitm inspection.
- wonnage 5y agoIt's as annoying to see all these unfounded comments like yours making China some sort of omniscient bogeyman.
- kindle-dev 5y agoI'm not making China out to be an omniscient bogeyman. The U.S. has used companies to gain access to secure systems in other countries. It's just a reality that ANY country can do this. To deny that is to either be a shill, or woefully ignorant.
- eric__cartman 5y agoThis is a problem with propietary software in general. You can't be sure about what it does at all times. It's not a China specific issue.