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I think people on Hacker News seem to commonly mistake threats to their personal privacy with threats to national security. Facebook having to turn over data to

I think people on Hacker News seem to commonly mistake threats to their personal privacy with threats to national security. Facebook having to turn over data to the American government can't be a threat to American national security. This isn't to say the threat to you as a person is any different compared to TikTok handing over data to the CCP, but the concern here is maintaining American strategic military and intelligence advantage, not being fair and allowing all governments equal access to personal data.

coldpie 3y ago
Okay, but like, spell it out for me. What are the risks?
- labcomputer 3y ago
  0. One thing that three letter agencies like to do when posting an intelligence officer to a foreign country is to give them a false identity. Platforms like TikTok make reidentification much easier, which blows their cover. What makes this especially insidious is that this data goes back to childhood, before anyone is thinking about a career in intelligence. 1. Tiktok can identify people (in the US, in the government or military) who are in key strategic positions. For example, people with access to interesting information, or who know a lot of people with access to information. 2. Among the group in #1, it can identify people who are vulnerable to recruitment as spies. For example, it can identify any taboo tastes they might have, which are not (necessarily) illegal, but can be used as leverage to recruit a spy. Or identify people with financial problems (another vector for spy recruitment). Or people who are lonely, who would fall for a honey trap, etc. 3. It can spread propaganda I. What happens if the chain of command breaks because someone thinks a war is illegitimate because they've been brainwashed? If Taiwan is and always has been the rightful territory of China, and nearly 100% of Taiwanese and mainland Chinese want them to be united, then why are we fighting a war to keep them apart? 4. It can spread propaganda II. Trade wars are not without downsides. One of them is that it makes imports from China more expensive. Propaganda does not need to be false information. What happens if the public broadly loses support for the trade war because of TikTok propaganda? 5. Remote no-click zero-days for iPhone exist. China has a capable cyber intelligence service. TikTok could be used to spread an exploit to phones of people in key strategic roles.
  - coldpie 3y ago
    If any of what you mention is illegal, and Tiktok is doing it, then we already have enough to stop them and we don't a new law targeting Tiktok, right? If those actions aren't illegal, but we want Tiktok to stop doing them, then why are we crafting a law specifically to allow Facebook to continue to do them?

coldpie 3y ago

Okay, but like, spell it out for me. What are the risks?

labcomputer 3y ago
0. One thing that three letter agencies like to do when posting an intelligence officer to a foreign country is to give them a false identity. Platforms like TikTok make reidentification much easier, which blows their cover. What makes this especially insidious is that this data goes back to childhood, before anyone is thinking about a career in intelligence. 1. Tiktok can identify people (in the US, in the government or military) who are in key strategic positions. For example, people with access to interesting information, or who know a lot of people with access to information. 2. Among the group in #1, it can identify people who are vulnerable to recruitment as spies. For example, it can identify any taboo tastes they might have, which are not (necessarily) illegal, but can be used as leverage to recruit a spy. Or identify people with financial problems (another vector for spy recruitment). Or people who are lonely, who would fall for a honey trap, etc. 3. It can spread propaganda I. What happens if the chain of command breaks because someone thinks a war is illegitimate because they've been brainwashed? If Taiwan is and always has been the rightful territory of China, and nearly 100% of Taiwanese and mainland Chinese want them to be united, then why are we fighting a war to keep them apart? 4. It can spread propaganda II. Trade wars are not without downsides. One of them is that it makes imports from China more expensive. Propaganda does not need to be false information. What happens if the public broadly loses support for the trade war because of TikTok propaganda? 5. Remote no-click zero-days for iPhone exist. China has a capable cyber intelligence service. TikTok could be used to spread an exploit to phones of people in key strategic roles.
- coldpie 3y ago
  If any of what you mention is illegal, and Tiktok is doing it, then we already have enough to stop them and we don't a new law targeting Tiktok, right? If those actions aren't illegal, but we want Tiktok to stop doing them, then why are we crafting a law specifically to allow Facebook to continue to do them?