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FCC Commissioner Calls for Apple and Google to Ban TikTok Over 'Surreptitious' Data Practices
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On the contrary. With the second amendment, the government cannot just make laws (eg banning things) that will affect/impede freedom of speech. There has to be an insurmountable evidence for something serious (eg national security).
OTOH, companies are within their rights to allow/disallow what they offer in their store/platform based on any reasons.
The FCC going for the later route could mean that their evidences are fairly weak.
Simply look at the app’s privacy label in the App Store. Apple has made it more transparent for users to know what they’re dealing with.
TikTok data used to track you:
- contact info
- identifiers
TikTok data linked to you:
- purchases
- location
- contacts
- search history
- identifiers
- diagnostics
- financial info
- contact info
- user content
- browsing history
- usage data
Bumble (dating app) data used to track you:
- location
- identifiers
- contact info
- usage data
Bumble (dating app) data linked to you:
- health and fitness
- location
- contacts
- identifiers
- sensitive info
- other data
- purchases
- contact info
- user content
- usage data
- diagnostics
OMG! Bumble uses more data to track users *and* they collect and use "sensive info" to link users.
Ban Bumble!
Stuff like this is total cr@p that will never sully any device I own in a million years, but as for banning it? All I will say is be careful what you wish for. Governments and their organisations are there to manage countries, not micro-manage our lives. Today it's this, tomorrow it's Signal or Telegram. Beware false idols appearing to bring gifts. "It's a trap!"
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We sure have a lot to deal with right now. Like Republicans trying to overthrow the government before he was even in office, a climate crisis, an anti-constitution Supreme Court, a pandemic.
The list just doesn’t end
You do know that YouTube has some long videos, right? I mean Isaac Arthur's videos generally advice getting a drink and snack. There are also documentary channels like History Time and most of their vidoes are 50 minutes or longer. Then you have all the free with ads or totally free movies.
I listened to Trump and I injected myself with bleach and ate a bunch of hydroxychloroquine pills. Now I can smell colors.
I was on the Tiktok hate train for a long while and now I've just come to accept that the app is here to stay and won't be going anywhere soon as long as many people use it.
Tiktok is everywhere and it's hard to escape it even when you try to avoid it.
Tiktok is everywhere and it's hard to escape it even when you try to avoid it.
Damn man that's pretty dope, I heard horse piss is a good alternative if you don't have access to hydroxychloroquine.
If they ban TikTok, there will be a lot of pissed off teens. Then again, as bad as it is for Meta to have access to your data, it could be potentially far worse to have your data accessible to the Chinese government.
Apple should just buy TikTok for 80 billion already. Though I bet TikTok isn't worth as much if you don't abuse the user data.
Apple should remove TikTok from the Apple store just...
...because...
...and then ban anyone who makes stupid videos on the platform from ever owning an Apple device.
...because...
...and then ban anyone who makes stupid videos on the platform from ever owning an Apple device.
What are you talking about? Biden is doing a great job!
He’s done… um…
Well, you see, he’s accomplished….
Uhh…
He’s just doing a great job, okay?!!
🤪
I'm able to express an opinion and disagree with others here without resorting to insulting them.
Private companies can work in tandem with governments in all nations. In the US Microsoft was accused of leaving a backdoor in Windows 7 which the US government could access. This wasn't a story on a nameless blog, this came from the Assurance Director of the National Security Agency in his testimony before Congress.
People here that say they do not care about their data are missing the point. It is not your data they really care about. They care about national security. Remember when Strava posted their online map showing "3 trillion" GPS datapoints, revealing secret military bases and the like. Strava was even used to track the Israeli military "even those who have applied the strongest possible account privacy settings". Toss in foreign and civilian contractor personnel and a lot of extremely sensitive information is jeopardized, and with it lives.
"'By exploiting the capability to upload engineered files, revealing the details of users anywhere in the world, hostile elements have taken one alarming step closer to exploiting a popular app in order to harm the security of citizens and countries alike,' Schatz said."
And that was just Strava. Now imagine that scaled up to TikTok levels and the "frenemy" status of relationships between the US and China and stop seeing things through your own narrow pinhole.
"'By exploiting the capability to upload engineered files, revealing the details of users anywhere in the world, hostile elements have taken one alarming step closer to exploiting a popular app in order to harm the security of citizens and countries alike,' Schatz said."
And that was just Strava. Now imagine that scaled up to TikTok levels and the "frenemy" status of relationships between the US and China and stop seeing things through your own narrow pinhole.
Carr has been doing follow-ups today explaining he did this on his own, was not discussed with other commission members, letter is not legally binding, and is not enforcing any FCC regulatory authority. I suspect he got his rear handed to him by Chairwoman Rosenworcel.
Those are perfectly valid concerns and the US government should take action against ByteDance if true. Asking Apple and Google to effectively end TikTok's business in the US without some sort of official sanction in place is just opening up Apple and Google to legal liability. As scrutinized as TikTok is, I hardly believe it is violating Apple or Google App Store terms in any meaningful way and smaller technical violations could be sorted out by not approving updates until they comply. What Byte Dance does on the backend with the data is something only the US government could regulate and I don't even think that would fall under the FCC anyway..
That started a long time ago with FaceBook. Tik Tok merely continues the trend. Jonathan Haidt’s research bears out what we all assumed… that social media is toxic, especially for youth.
Some of those are more immediate / relevant to the job of the president than others.
The specific part of the government that deals with government policy toward other countries shouldn't be too busy with those other issues.
China is related to many, many things including the climate crisis. Also deeply tied to American economics in many ways. I'm not saying Trump's approach was the correct one but at least he recognized it as one of the most important issues, and one directly related to his job as head of state.