4 ms·

TikTok dodges questions about biometric data collection in Senate hearing

29 points by arkadiyt 5y ago

rvz 5y ago
It has been 'openly' admitted. In front of the US Senate. As I and another commenter said before [0] and previously with network device access [1], why exactly do you need to collect faceprints, voiceprints, etc and now keystroke patterns and rhythms in a smartphone app used by billions of users? This is no better or different than Facebook (In fact, its even worse). Dodging basic questions doesn't give confidence that TikTok is 'open and transparent' or should even be trusted by anyone at this point even when they are held to account at today's hearing. So I expect that users on the platform are guaranteed to be screwed over once again and just like Facebook and YouTube. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28134230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28134230 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28199896 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28199896
- perl4ever 5y ago
  Worrying about Chinese surveillance of Americans at this point is surreal to me. If the Chinese government doesn't control every aspect of the US Federal government at this point, I don't even know what they would be doing with the information they've got. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management... I would like to suggest anyone who missed this, would read the article top to bottom and think about the consequences without wishful thinking. Clapper said you have to hand it to them, we would've done the same.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  The CCP believes ML/AI is the next frontier in military technology, and a field they can be first in. They are aggregating PII from social media companies to build training sets on both internal and exernal populations. (The CCP already communicates directly with WeChat users in foreign countries, used to "repatriate" masks and other PPE from US stores in early 2020.) One of their selling points for selling/financing Huawei telco servers in Africa is for population monitoring. (Note that foreign countries, including Europe, that install telco equipment often have China manage both the network and billing operations. The latter provides PII.) This has been widely reported, so anybody who denies it is either on their payroll, or a useful idiot. Foreign factories have been in a panic to relocate outside China since the CCP's corrosive practises have been disclosed (export capital controls since 2016, IP theft, kidnapping of foreigners, nation-wide organ harvesting, wolf warrior diplomacy, etc.) It appears that the CCP believes the only thing that matters is money, but Western companies weigh other factors when deciding where to finance the next factory, including upcoming trade embargoes with the next Republican President.
josh_today 5y ago
How do most people continue to believe they have any form of privacy

29 points by arkadiyt 5y ago

rvz 5y ago

It has been 'openly' admitted. In front of the US Senate. As I and another commenter said before [0] and previously with network device access [1], why exactly do you need to collect faceprints, voiceprints, etc and now keystroke patterns and rhythms in a smartphone app used by billions of users? This is no better or different than Facebook (In fact, its even worse). Dodging basic questions doesn't give confidence that TikTok is 'open and transparent' or should even be trusted by anyone at this point even when they are held to account at today's hearing. So I expect that users on the platform are guaranteed to be screwed over once again and just like Facebook and YouTube. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28134230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28134230 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28199896 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28199896

perl4ever 5y ago
Worrying about Chinese surveillance of Americans at this point is surreal to me. If the Chinese government doesn't control every aspect of the US Federal government at this point, I don't even know what they would be doing with the information they've got. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management... I would like to suggest anyone who missed this, would read the article top to bottom and think about the consequences without wishful thinking. Clapper said you have to hand it to them, we would've done the same.
redis_mlc 5y ago
The CCP believes ML/AI is the next frontier in military technology, and a field they can be first in. They are aggregating PII from social media companies to build training sets on both internal and exernal populations. (The CCP already communicates directly with WeChat users in foreign countries, used to "repatriate" masks and other PPE from US stores in early 2020.) One of their selling points for selling/financing Huawei telco servers in Africa is for population monitoring. (Note that foreign countries, including Europe, that install telco equipment often have China manage both the network and billing operations. The latter provides PII.) This has been widely reported, so anybody who denies it is either on their payroll, or a useful idiot. Foreign factories have been in a panic to relocate outside China since the CCP's corrosive practises have been disclosed (export capital controls since 2016, IP theft, kidnapping of foreigners, nation-wide organ harvesting, wolf warrior diplomacy, etc.) It appears that the CCP believes the only thing that matters is money, but Western companies weigh other factors when deciding where to finance the next factory, including upcoming trade embargoes with the next Republican President.

josh_today 5y ago

How do most people continue to believe they have any form of privacy