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> "TikTok empowers users with transparent information about its privacy practices and gives them multiple tools to customise their experience," a TikTok spokesp
by bonsai_spool 8mo ago
> "TikTok empowers users with transparent information about its privacy practices and gives them multiple tools to customise their experience," a TikTok spokesperson says. "Advertising pixels are industry standard and used widely across social and media platforms"
Such Doublespeak—the word empower really means enfeeble and privacy its opposite.
- everdrive 8mo agoI don't understand why such obvious bullshit serves any function whatsoever. If everyone knows it's bullshit, why is this better than saying "we violate your privacy as much as is legally possible, and sometimes more than that."
- deaux 8mo agoEffectively everyone knows that Coke (the drink) is trash for your health. It's liquid candy. Why are they still spending hundreds of millions on ads with athletes and other things that provoke a healthy image? Because we're all monkey-brained. There are uncountable examples of this.
- Rooster61 8mo agoAnd if I choose to drink a Coke, then so be it. I'm not forced to, and I'm aware of the fact that I am consenting to whatever ill effects I might get by purchasing and consuming it. These pixels are a horse of a different color. They grab my info with no consent given (hiding behind "But the site we have the pixel on has to inform you, not us!" is a complete and utter cop out) and then make a profit selling or using it. Totally different circumstances, and this shouldn't be ok.
- deaux 8mo agoSir, this thread is about corporate PR phrasing/excusing /marketing when everyone knows something is the opposite. You might've replied to the wrong thread here.
- Anonbrit 8mo agoThere's plenty of evidence that many people are not making rational and informed decisions due to advertising practices. That is absolutely being forced into things
- bigstrat2003 8mo ago> Why are they still spending hundreds of millions on ads with athletes and other things that provoke a healthy image? Because they are foolish enough to believe that advertising actually works to influence people's behavior. Or because they are afraid that their bosses are similarly foolish, so they will get punished if they try to do Coca-Cola the favor of cutting that extreme waste from the budget.
- Lio 8mo agoThe real issue here is the word "users". They're silently collecting very personal information, without permission, from people that not users. You can't object to Tiktok collecting information about your mental health because you're not told they're collecting it in the first place.
- CalRobert 8mo agoPresumably an EU citizen _could_ make a GDPR subject access request to see what they have, but this seems unlikely to work.
- Lio 8mo agoI guess to complete GDPR request you'd have to send them some of your personal information to identify yourself too. :(
- Nextgrid 8mo agoThey can just ignore it and get away with it: https://noyb.eu/en/microsofts-xandr-grants-gdpr-rights-rate-0 https://noyb.eu/en/microsofts-xandr-grants-gdpr-rights-rate-... The "success" of GDPR is greatly overstated here. In practice, breaching it is the winning strategy.
- vonneumannstan 8mo ago>"Advertising pixels are industry standard and used widely across social and media platforms" Where is the lie?
- unethical_ban 8mo agoIf it's not a lie, it is still an immoral practice. The article details how Tiktok is using the tracking to collect data on non-tiktok users to build profiles of people without their consent, and trying to say that people consent to it in their "downflow" usage of sites that have tiktok embeds. Again, even if others are doing it, it's shitty and unethical.
- vonneumannstan 8mo agoLots to blame Tiktok for but I believe this is completely ubiquitous across the internet. Every major brand with a digital marketing department does this.
- bonsai_spool 8mo ago> TikTok empowers users with transparent information about its privacy practices and gives them multiple tools to customise their experience," a TikTok spokesperson says. "Advertising pixels are industry standard and used widely across social and media platforms" - Are we really empowered to stop being surveilled? - Does the customization of my experience have any bearing with the actual allegation of tracking non-users on the internet? - Are advertising pixels transparently shown to those who never have been on TikTok but are monitored all the same? (edit: To be clear, Doublespeak isn't about a lie as much as words losing their entire meaning and being used to hide truth with comfortable phrasinggs)
- thn-gap 8mo agoThere should be digital riots, where people team up to fight such abusive practices. Thinking of AdNauseam extension, but next level. Surely there should be a very simple and effective way to disrupt such practices when people organize. Is there any precedent for such thing?
- izacus 8mo agoMeanwhile I bet marketing people in your own job and all the other jobs you had used those in every single email.
- godelski 8mo agoTruthfully, things like uBlock are digital protests. They look different than people marching in a street but they are organized and pushing back against the oppression. But it does look different and isn't as extreme as a riot.
- ericpauley 8mo agoIn their defense the tracking pixel is (likely) quite literally transparent.