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New York City bans TikTok for government employees
- irtefa 3y agoFree marketing for YouTube Shorts and IG Reels.
- LordDragonfang 3y agoNot free. Guaranteed that both Google and Meta have spent a significant amount of time and money lobbying for this to (a) apply to TikTok (b) not apply to them. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2023/03/23/tiktok-ban-isnt-targeting-youth-culture--but-it-kinda-is/?sh=5f51b722f21c https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2023/03/23/tiktok-ba... >"It is no secret that Facebook has been aggressively lobbying lawmakers to ban TikTok, as Meta would be the great beneficiary"
- elicash 3y ago"from government devices" seems important to the title Edit: also, this article simply re-reports a Verge article: https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/16/23834579/nyc-tiktok-ban-new-york-china-surveillance-spy https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/16/23834579/nyc-tiktok-ban-n... Props to Engadget for citing their source, but just think that the Verge deserves that shout-out here too.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoBanning non business critical apps from corp/org devices is just good security hygiene. Would probably not even be PR if the MDM policy was pushed and when people asked, IT said "no non business apps."
- zffr 3y agoYeah, this seems completely reasonable IMO.
- datadrivenangel 3y agoGovernment devices should be boring, so I hope they also ban facebook.
- bsimpson 3y agoThe Verge is a better source and has a more accurate title.
- hgsgm 3y agoThats the onvious interpretation, clued by the word "employees". Headlines don't include every bit of context.
- elicash 3y agoHere they just rewrote a Verge article titled "NYC bans TikTok on city-owned devices" and made it inaccurate. Why they would go out of their way to make the headline they copied from wrong and also slightly LONGER is super weird.
- ChicagoBoy11 3y agoCall me cynical, but I think the Tik Tok banning efforts are an example of such a successful lobbying effort from the part of US-based social media companies. It has yet to be brought to my attention what behaviors/patterns Tik Tok employs which set them apart from their US-based competitors, and I am in awe of how META/Alphabet have some nicely created this wedge based on their nationality to use as a cudgel against one of their biggest competitors. It smells to me a little bit like the LIV/PGA thing, where the Saudi Arabia connection was heavily publicized for the upstart tour as a reason to fight against the potential rival to the PGA. Then, of course, they merged. Interesting to see what the endgame will be for Tik Tok's case.
- RandallBrown 3y ago> what behaviors/patterns Tik Tok employs which set them apart from their US-based competitors Isn't it based on concerns that TikTok could be spying for China?
- ok123456 3y agoBased on what? The practices of all these social media companies seems the same and is dictated by the capabilities of devices and by the market.
- decremental 3y ago[dead]
- RandallBrown 3y agoI think it's sort of assumed that most large companies in China, if not totally controlled by the government, are at least heavily involved with it. So even if Meta or Google are collecting info, it's not for the Chinese government (and being US based, the US Government has a bit more say in what they do.)
- ok123456 3y ago
- cj 3y agoHonestly, it wouldn't be a terrible move to ban all social media apps (or other apps that track movement or activity) from government phones. I'm surprised government-owned devices are allowed any non-essential apps at all. E.g. the story about government / military facilities being exposed via army using Strava to track running routes (effectively creating a map of the facility)
- elicash 3y agoI agree with you. However, one thought I had is that you want to make sure government business happens on government phones, and maybe people are less likely to do that if they habitually using their personal phones during the work day? I'm not saying that was the calculation, just thinking this through.
- cj 3y agoYea, the ban would be ineffective if it resulted in gov employees simply carrying 2 phones everywhere, 1 tightly restricted and 1 unrestricted. Probably better to have 1 phone that’s semi-restricted.
- mschuster91 3y agoNo sandbox is ever going to be truly secure. An enemy nation's app on a work phone with access to sensitive, maybe even classified data? No no no.
- unsignedint 3y agoMDM can be set up to allow access to government resources solely through employer-owned devices, reducing the utility of personal phones for work tasks. If employees intentionally bypass this, they may warrant disciplinary actions, just like any other breach of workplace policies.
- adolph 3y agoIt seems like once a government employee attains a certain rank they create a set of alt email and social accounts to conduct off the record business, so two phones is required. Maybe phones should have a hypervisor and multiple VMs (or VPs?) to support this without having to cart around additional hardware.
- amelius 3y agoMeanwhile, US data brokers still collect and sell all their data, and happily to state actors such as the CCP if they open their huge wallet. The only reasonable solution is to ban all user tracking now.
- hangonhn 3y ago100% this. Respecting user privacy makes any sort of malicious propaganda campaigns that much harder -- be it CCP, Russia, US, or private entities. Otherwise we end up just playing whack-a-mole and usually after the fact.
- leotravis10 3y agoYes 1000% this! Also, TikTok and many other companies can still get user data from data brokers and credit agencies which are so unregulated that we need laws globally to ban surveillence alltogether.
- olyjohn 3y agoThis whole TikTok thing is such a waste of everybody's time and energy. And gives everybody this false impression that US social media is totally safe to use.
- hedora 3y agoDoes it give anyone that impression? It gives everyone that I’ve talked to the impression that the US government is transparently bought off by Facebook and friends.
- Zetice 3y agoEh, my understanding was the TikTok app collected more and different data than say, Facebook or Twitter.
- hedora 3y agoI doubt they get more info than Facebook. The last time I logged in to Facebook, it was to lock down the teacking settings. I found out that GM had sold our onstar info to them without my knowledge or consent. Facebook definitely builds shadow profiles, so they have such info on you regardless of whether you have an account.
- unsignedint 3y agoWouldn't it be more accurate to say that TikTok is banned on government-owned devices? The nuance matters; there's a significant difference between banning the app on government devices and extending that ban to personal devices owned by employees. The headline suggests a more extensive ban, but it's specifically about government-owned devices. Furthermore, I'm puzzled as to why TikTok would be on government-issued devices in the first place. Shouldn't a standard MDM block non-essential apps by default? Why would they need TikTok on work devices, aside from perhaps a PR representative with an official presence there?
- hgsgm 3y agoThe common sense interpretation is that the rule applies to work devices.
- jahsome 3y agoFor precisely the reasons you listed, this entire article, but especially the headline, are safely labeled click bait. Everything about it is technically accurate but it's carefully designed to be misleading so passersby think "that can't be right" and click to seek more, or worse, become furious and click to figure out who is responsible. There's also the knock on effect of someone seeing the headline in one of their various feeds, and forming an opinion one way or another, without having clicked at all.
- asu_thomas 3y ago"Clicks" are not the purpose. Advertising is. It's ad-bait.
- rvz 3y agoI would prefer a multi-billion dollar / euro fine(s) for TikTok instead of a ban since it is clear that TikTok was repeatedly caught and gotten a slap on the wrist for continuous privacy violations of its users [0] [1] [2] and can afford these tiny fines for repeat offenses after lying about how its data was able to be accessible from overseas [3] [4] [5] in China whilst they initially denied it. It is not some tiny company and it is competing at the scale of Meta in the billions of dollars. There is absolutely no defense at all either from TikTok or its addicted fans to continue creating more excuses or justifications of its privacy violations and lies. Like Meta was fined in the billions by the regulators, the same should exactly happen with TikTok. Repeat offenses should climb into the tens of billions of dollars. [0] https://futurism.com/tiktok-spy-locations-specific-americans https://futurism.com/tiktok-spy-locations-specific-americans [1] https://www.scmagazine.com/news/uk-tiktok-16m-fine-childrens-data-privacy-violations https://www.scmagazine.com/news/uk-tiktok-16m-fine-childrens... [2] https://edpb.europa.eu/news/national-news/2021/dutch-dpa-tiktok-fined-violating-childrens-privacy_en https://edpb.europa.eu/news/national-news/2021/dutch-dpa-tik... [3] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-tapes-us-user-data-china-bytedance-access https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-... [4] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/02/tiktok-tells-european-users-its-staff-in-china-get-access-to-their-data https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/02/tiktok-te... [5] https://fortune.com/2022/12/22/tiktok-data-privacy-blunder-china-bytedance-bans-journalist-accounts/ https://fortune.com/2022/12/22/tiktok-data-privacy-blunder-c...
- edgyquant 3y agoI would prefer it be banned. Most countries are able to block things built by their adversaries and the US needs an equivalent
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hot_gril 3y agoI don't care a ton about my privacy, I don't have to justify it, and I'm probably in the great majority. At this point there isn't even a lack of awareness. GDPR is just another form of protectionism via obscure standards and selective enforcement, which is classic in Europe, except we got these fun cookie banners out of it too. When it comes to TikTok, let's be real, the only reason the US or others care is because it's China-based and we aren't friendly with them. That's fine, ban it.
- noer 3y agoThat's really sad. DSNY has a really good/interesting TT account.
- hospitalJail 3y agoIt really goes to show how much value is in these phones to everyone. Google/Apple need to have apps get full access to every ability on your phone. Companies need it. Government's want it. Users don't care unless it works/doesnt work. Outside of hacking(which iOS is terrible at preventing), any marketing/perception of security/privacy is a charade.
- sharts 3y agoWhy not just ban all social media apps and pretty much anything that isn't strictly required to do their work. What kind of nonsense is this?
- rchaud 3y ago> What kind of nonsense is this? The "four legs good, two legs bad" type.
- davidmurphy 3y agoIt has the potential to be Chinese spyware. Social apps can be useful for work.
- chollida1 3y agoNot a bad idea. Most hedge funds I know also ban it on their corporate phones. Seems like alot of people with very good knowlegde of the situation see TikTok as a very real threat to their privacy.
- rightbyte 3y agoWhy would a hedge fund trust any spyware? More like there is a political meme trash talking Tik Tok. It is some sort of virtue signaling to make a case for siding with the Good Guys in DC. I e.g. suspect a lot of big techs layoffs are virtue signaling to appease the FED. I believe that the elite operate like this.
- xnx 3y agoNew York Times gets the headline right: "New York City Bans TikTok on Government-Owned Devices" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/technology/tiktok-ban-new-york-city.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/technology/tiktok-ban-new...
- rchaud 3y agoAnd they used to call Blackberry antiquated for selling phones without cameras to enterprise customers. Different horses for courses.
- broken_clock 3y agoThere was an interesting article about how the US convicted a Chinese spy largely because he did some spy work on his personal iCloud and Gmail accounts. Not a fan at all of banning this sort of thing for private citizens, but I think banning it on government-owned devices is a decent trade-off between liberty and public interest. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-09-15/china-wanted-ge-s-secrets-but-then-their-spy-got-caught https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-09-15/china-wan...
- ClassyJacket 3y agoThe title seems to be an outright lie if you read the article -- it's only banned on government devices, not for government employees.
- firecall 3y agoIt surprises me that employees can install anything at all on government devices! Just lock them down and set the culture such that you seperate personal and government devices. No one needs to be or should be using TikTok on a work phone, unless you are literally a content creator or social media manager of some sort.
- LatteLazy 3y agoIt's like the red scare all over again.