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TikTok kept list of users who watched LGBTQ+ content, former employees say
- thomasfromcdnjs 3y agoI'd imagine any social network keeps tracks of what categories its user's prefer.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoYeah and they only stored the data for a year! I'm honestly surprised by how relatively non-invasive that is. On the other hand it's helpful to remind the public of what these companies are doing to make money from us.
- bmarquez 3y agoAbsolutely, Facebook and Twitter try to assign you into categories and bombard you with ads based on them. What's interesting is that TikTok is getting the criticism these days, meaning that they're currently at the top of social media mind share.
- cptcobalt 3y agoYes, and not just limited to social networks.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kritiko 3y agoPrevious discussion on WSJ reporting about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35836837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35836837
- causi 3y agoTikTok keeps a list of everything its users watch and do. It keeps a list of users who watch videos about tattoos. It keeps a list of users who watch videos about wearing dresses. How would it know to recommend you more gay stuff if it doesn't know you like gay stuff? TikTok is a spyware company. Always has been. "They include gay people in their spying!" is not news.
- vinni2 3y agoIt doesn’t sounds like it was run of the mill data logging. I don’t think they had explicit lists of people who watch videos of tattoos?
- jstarfish 3y agoThere is no explicit "list;" the title is being deliberately dishonest to foment outrage. > A TikTok representative told the Wall Street Journal that the data set was accessible on the dashboard to authorised employees only and that the dashboard was deleted in the US almost a year ago. That said, the fact that even a database view exists is a problem. The threat is real-- it's the same reason the Chinese were interested in buying Grindr.
- d0mine 3y agoHow is it any different from google, facebook, amazon, etc?
- sph 3y agoWho said it is? There is no need for drive-by whataboutism.
- Pulcinella 3y agoThere really is no reasoning with some people. You compare two somewhat dissimilar things and people say you’re comparing apples and oranges. You compare two very similar things and they say you are doing a whataboutism.
- sr-latch 3y agoYour comment fails to recognize the point they made. They're saying that we shouldn't tolerate this behavior from any company, not just TikTok
- 3y ago
- PurpleRamen 3y agoObviously, that's the whole purpose of it. Track what you like, and show you more of it. And this is not a problem, as long as it's handled with care, and not leaked or abused. It doesn't even matter who might be accessing the data, be it China, USA, the Church, your eternal enemy, whatever... It's crucial data, which can be weaponized against people depending on the political situation. And people should be aware of this and should have a strong interest in implementing strong laws for protecting those data and being linked to their identity.
- LetsGetTechnicl 3y agoGuilty of consuming TikToks of men shaking their asses on camera, not sorry
- haswell 3y agoI think “duh, of course they have this data” is missing the point. A lot of comments here seem to be hyper focused on the inherent properties of a social network necessary to serve users relevant content. As a tech community, we’re better equipped to understand this inherent property, but arguably the average user won’t have the same intuitions. There are two ways I think this can be read: 1) TikTok does what every social media platform does, but because of the cultural context, articles like this seek to warn users that their preferences are now on a list somewhere. In this case, it’s not that the existence of a list is surprising, but that who holds the list is worrisome. 2) Above and beyond the base functions of a social network, TikTok specifically maintains topic-specific reports for <reasons>. If this is indeed true, it just magnifies the concern, because now it’s not just about “TikTok could do this”, but “TikTok is doing this”. In other words, it’s one thing to have data about users as a natural byproduct of running the network. It’s another thing to build highly sensitive reports on that data, and depending on who builds those reports and why, questions will naturally arise. What’s not clear from the article is which thing is happening. > “TikTok does not identify individuals or infer sensitive information such as sexual orientation or race based on what they watch.” If they’re going to do something nefarious with this kind of data, it’s not necessary to infer orientation or race. This is a non-answer.
- bdcravens 3y agoI also follow several LGBTQ+ content creators on TikTok, and I'm straight. I also follow a variety of racially-oriented content creators (mostly in the BLM and Native American rights space), and I'm white.