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What are we so afraid of with TikTok? If there's a real concern, someone propose a law and let's debate it. It's so tiresome to just see senators personally at

What are we so afraid of with TikTok? If there's a real concern, someone propose a law and let's debate it. It's so tiresome to just see senators personally attacking executives in Congressional testimony. Imo we're afraid of: (1) the algorithm's influence on our kids' minds (a health risk), and (2) transfer and mining of personal data for dystopian uses we can imagine. For 1, are we ready to regulate what individuals can do to their minds (which we used to say books and tv could also hurt?) Maybe there's a case for it now. Let's debate it. For 2, let's talk honestly about what we're okay with and what we aren't. Industry has decided these things are ok, but the law isn't super clear on it. It's mostly based on GDPR: -it's okay to use personal data to fix bugs and provide the service the user expects -it's okay to use it to secure and avoid fraud etc -with consent, it's okay to use it to do product development studies to inform how you build future features -with more specific consent, it's okay to use it for targeted marketing in the app or other places online -regardless of consent, any government whose country you care about can force you to hand the data over to law enforcement authorities. Another complexity comes in with the vendors you share the data with for all of these purposes. As a business, tell me what I can and can't do.

jeroenhd 4y ago
The American government is doing the same thing the EU government has been doing for years: setting up defences against influences from foreign tech companies. Most of the world's social media used to come from the USA and that wasn't a problem for the American government because they could control those companies. The EU was all up in arms against this but the USA did not care as there was little need to give any concessions. The result was the failing of Privacy Shield and more and more American companies and services now becoming illegal in the EU. I bet the GDPR wouldn't have even existed if it weren't for Facebook and Google. The fact your Congress is so afraid of what American tech companies have effectively been doing happening to them is quite telling. It confirms that every other country's actions against American tech giants is warranted. As for your points: the shortening of one's attention span is quite noticeable if you use these apps for a while and then take a break. The constant dopamine hits of videos you like are addicting and are definitely having an impact on children. This is incredibly hard to regulate and I expect this behaviour to continue for quite a while. As for your second point, the less data you collect, sell, or transfer, the less likely it'll be that you run into trouble. If you want to be sure about what you can or can't do without a legal advisor, assume that wherever the law is vague about something, it's probably preventing you from doing something. For most American states the privacy laws are incredibly forgiving as long as you make sure to not have any children under 13 on your platform (COPPA) or collect health INFORMATION (HIPAA). California was the first state to set up privacy barriers but they're not as strict as other countries' laws. If you (plan to) cross borders, though, you'll have to stick to the lowest common denominator or do some very creative corporate structuring. In many cases this also means setting up subsidiaries that cannot share any data with your American company and physically store the data in the legislative area as many countries ban storing customers' private data in a foreign country (i.e. in the EU, in Russia, and I believe in India as well). If you're afraid of giving user data to a foreign government, don't operate under those governments. If you want to mine data like you're describing, get yourself someone who can give you legal advice. Tiktok is breaking the law in many places but unlike you it's got enough millions to burn on an eventual lawsuit and settlement. I'm no lawyer but the simplest answer I can give you is "stop mining so much data unless your legal team signs off on it".
stjohnswarts 4y ago
I think the biggest deal is there is no wall between the data and the CCP, it is currently 100% available to them and that means they are essentially datamining and entire generation, some of them too dumb to realize that what they do now can and will be used against them in the future.

jeroenhd 4y ago

The American government is doing the same thing the EU government has been doing for years: setting up defences against influences from foreign tech companies. Most of the world's social media used to come from the USA and that wasn't a problem for the American government because they could control those companies. The EU was all up in arms against this but the USA did not care as there was little need to give any concessions. The result was the failing of Privacy Shield and more and more American companies and services now becoming illegal in the EU. I bet the GDPR wouldn't have even existed if it weren't for Facebook and Google. The fact your Congress is so afraid of what American tech companies have effectively been doing happening to them is quite telling. It confirms that every other country's actions against American tech giants is warranted. As for your points: the shortening of one's attention span is quite noticeable if you use these apps for a while and then take a break. The constant dopamine hits of videos you like are addicting and are definitely having an impact on children. This is incredibly hard to regulate and I expect this behaviour to continue for quite a while. As for your second point, the less data you collect, sell, or transfer, the less likely it'll be that you run into trouble. If you want to be sure about what you can or can't do without a legal advisor, assume that wherever the law is vague about something, it's probably preventing you from doing something. For most American states the privacy laws are incredibly forgiving as long as you make sure to not have any children under 13 on your platform (COPPA) or collect health INFORMATION (HIPAA). California was the first state to set up privacy barriers but they're not as strict as other countries' laws. If you (plan to) cross borders, though, you'll have to stick to the lowest common denominator or do some very creative corporate structuring. In many cases this also means setting up subsidiaries that cannot share any data with your American company and physically store the data in the legislative area as many countries ban storing customers' private data in a foreign country (i.e. in the EU, in Russia, and I believe in India as well). If you're afraid of giving user data to a foreign government, don't operate under those governments. If you want to mine data like you're describing, get yourself someone who can give you legal advice. Tiktok is breaking the law in many places but unlike you it's got enough millions to burn on an eventual lawsuit and settlement. I'm no lawyer but the simplest answer I can give you is "stop mining so much data unless your legal team signs off on it".

stjohnswarts 4y ago

I think the biggest deal is there is no wall between the data and the CCP, it is currently 100% available to them and that means they are essentially datamining and entire generation, some of them too dumb to realize that what they do now can and will be used against them in the future.