5 ms·

Who uses TikTok for sensitive information? Government access to TikTok user data is of limited additional value compared to whatever TikTok sells to large adver

• partiallypro 4y ago
  When you couple this with the fact that China had secret police stations in the US trying to capture Chinese dissidents, you could use such data to track those people to kidnap them, regardless of if the information was sensitive on the app or not.
  • xtian 4y ago
    > China had secret police stations in the US trying to capture Chinese dissidents What's the evidence for this?
    • partiallypro 4y ago
      The recent busts in multiple countries, including one prominent one in New York City? https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/04/world/china-overseas-police-stations-intl-cmd/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/04/world/china-overseas-police-s... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65305415 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65305415 https://www.npr.org/2023/04/17/1170571626/fbi-arrests-2-on-charges-tied-to-chinese-outpost-in-new-york-city https://www.npr.org/2023/04/17/1170571626/fbi-arrests-2-on-c... https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65537553.amp https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65537553.amp https://www.newsweek.com/china-overseas-police-service-center-public-security-bureau-safeguard-defenders-transnational-crime-1764531 https://www.newsweek.com/china-overseas-police-service-cente... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/20/explainer-chinas-covert-overseas-police-stations https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/20/explainer-chin... https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/beijing-s-long-arm-china-s-secret-police-stations-in-europe-a-d6732094-ca32-4c0a-8e6f-58b395b946aa https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/beijing-s-long-ar...
      • xtian 4y ago
        I know there are about a billion articles in Western media claiming this, but what's the actual evidence?
        • skdk 4y ago
          Uh the FBI arrested people, evidence will come out in trials. What’s the point of your comment?
          • xtian 4y ago
            Is this the threshold of credulity now for extraordinary claims? The authorities arrested people so they must have done something wrong? This way of thinking seems fraught historically.
          • l3mure 4y ago
            The FBI has arrested a lot of people under anti-China initiatives in the past few years, and most of the cases have been quietly dropped.
            • WarOnPrivacy 4y ago
              How are any of those cases meaningfully similar to the cases about China's US neo-police units?
              • l3mure 4y ago
                > U.S. Asks to Drop Case Accusing N.Y.P.D. Officer of Spying for China > The charges against Officer Angwang came amid growing concern on the part of law enforcement authorities in the United States and other Western countries about Beijing’s efforts to monitor Chinese nationals abroad, including dissidents. > Prosecutors cited recorded phone calls in charging Officer Angwang and said he had reported regularly to two Chinese consular officials in New York on the activities of ethnic Tibetans. One of the officials was responsible for “neutralizing sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority” opposed to the Chinese government’s policies and authority, court filings said. > But Mr. Carman, Officer Angwang’s lawyer, argued that the conversations described by prosecutors as “nefarious” were actually “pedestrian” efforts by his client to maintain good relations with Chinese officials so that he could obtain a visa to visit his parents in China and to introduce them to his daughter. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/nyregion/nypd-officer-china-spy-angwang.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/nyregion/nypd-officer-chi...
  • Zigurd 4y ago
    This is like saying "When you couple 30 seconds of girls dancing with assault rifles, it could kill you." China policing emigres in the US is way out of bounds and I dare you to find anyone who thinks otherwise. Whereas posting on any social media and expecting that post to not be seen by foreign adversaries is... what?
• penjelly 4y ago
  us military uses tiktok for fun from what ive seen. https://www.tiktok.com/search?q=military&t=1683997954279 https://www.tiktok.com/search?q=military&t=1683997954279 i know these probably just look like "fun videos" and most are likely of no consequence, but my guess is some of the military footage submitted on there is recent and potentially not in the interest of US national defense.
  • Zigurd 4y ago
    That's what goes into an honest appraisal of an attack surface: What's the value of gaining that data?
    • penjelly 4y ago
      the value of china gaining that info is immeasurable. specifically, what im saying we are underestimating the amount and value of the data even this one example provides to china. That was just one search
      • Zigurd 4y ago
        "immeasurable"
        • penjelly 4y ago
          okay for example. weapon/equipment types, base locations, squad sizes, army morale, etc.. Does that not make sense? You can glean a lot from those videos. I cant possibly name every one
          • pessimizer 4y ago
            You can name a single event where it made a difference.
          • philippejara 4y ago
            those videos are public regardless of who is the owner