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/Steve.
It's a political "vote grab" rather than anything common sense. Do they not realize all the American computers that have League of Legends on them (also from ByteDance) and maybe they're stealing secrets too... etc...??
I absolutely agree with the banning of all such apps IF they are proven to be spying on our citizens and sending important data to our enemies. This is pretty much a proven fact with tik tock as far as I know. Now, how you determine such facts and prove them and who has authority to "ban apps" is up for debate. Maybe we should ban all IOT devices that don't pass a security certification.
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast.
Ron
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast.
RonCBC reported recently that Canadian intelligence officials were concerned about Tik Tok. The Trudeau government isn't exactly a favourite of the US far-right (although the government and intelligence services aren't necessarily on the same page). Canada - China relations are strained to say the least.
Just a note: The FBI labeling Tik Tok as being "of concern" is of more significance than you or me being concerned about such and such. I have total respect for Steve's technical expertise. I appreciate Leo's insight. I have a number of experts I look to to help inform my opinion on geopolitics, human rights and law.
Edited to sound like slightly less of a jack-ass. Sorry Steve.
Just a note: The FBI labeling Tik Tok as being "of concern" is of more significance than you or me being concerned about such and such. I have total respect for Steve's technical expertise. I appreciate Leo's insight. I have a number of experts I look to to help inform my opinion on geopolitics, human rights and law.
Edited to sound like slightly less of a jack-ass. Sorry Steve.
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I'm just an average user, like everyone else here that's not on staff. I have strong political opinions which differ from probably half the people here, since that's the way the country is divided. Still, it's a good idea not to start political cat fights. On some things we might have to agree to disagree. What may be more interesting in the context of this thread is, are our apps spying on us and what, if anything can be done about it. I would appreciate it, sometimes, if @Steve and Leo would be more sympathetic to the privacy concerns of the paranoid. Many times, conspiracy theories turn into conspiracy facts.
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast.
RonThe real problem is that the platforms seem very bad at constraining apps. It should never be the case that an app can have info I don't want to share. The fact that there is a perceived risk to personal data, is a fault of the platform. I wouldn't choose to share my location, my video or audio, my contact into (or contacts), my phone number, or any phone ID with an app like Tik Tok that is just supposed to be about entertainment. Now as for the risk of social or political engineering or propaganda, it's unclear how you could prevent TikTok from doing that if they were directed to.
For what it's worth, when I install an app on android, I go into the permissions screen and the special access screen and turn off everything I don't think the app should have access to. Things like, as @PHolder said, microphone, video, contacts, location (actually, I keep that off generally), etc. I also turn off things like administrative privileges and wifi control so it can't turn my wifi on and off. If I have the wifi off, I want it to stay off. No phoning the mother ship when I think I'm radio silent. Some apps will barf when you do that and won't run. Sometimes I go into the app settings screen and terminate an app after I run it so it doesn't keep running. Also, unfortunately, something may legitimately need access to your camera, microphone, file system, and network, in the case of Tik Tock, etc. Then, it's very hard to prevent them from doing something nefarious or even know they're doing it. I also don't allow apps to auto update, since updates often break things or add advertisements or bogus terms of service, etc. If there's update coming, I want to personally approve it. One file manager program, upon an update, posted a notice saying they would share information about programs I run and things I do with third parties. Yuck! In general, I try not to run many apps at all for these reasons. If the tablet or phone allows it, I go into boot startup control and disable most apps from autostarting at boot. Also, if you see a great game you can download for free, that's being heavily advertised on TV, YOU are the product. They can't buy all those TV ads for free and they can't run huge server farms for free. They're making money somewhere, probably selling YOU to the highest bidder.
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast.
RonWe know (from listening to SN) how certain regimes have been able to game Facebook. Troll farms creating fake accounts to espouse various inflammatory opinions which the algorithm is all too eager to spread, for example. What I want to know is how much more damage might a malign actor do if it also owned the algorithm?
Also, tangentially, following on Steve's anecdote about the judge with the green oxygen tank who convinced him to never again be an expert witness, can we trust the judicial system to protect our rights from an NSO Group armed law enforcement agency?
Also, tangentially, following on Steve's anecdote about the judge with the green oxygen tank who convinced him to never again be an expert witness, can we trust the judicial system to protect our rights from an NSO Group armed law enforcement agency?
Facebook on Android has been my nemesis for privacy violations. I created an account on Facebook, due to a couple of ham radio devices I have that have NO support on the web, except ONLY on a Facebook group ("How did we get to this?" I wonder). I locked Facebook down pretty thoroughly, disallowing any followers, etc., and when asked, DENIED it access to my contacts.
So, guess what it kept doing? That's right, it kept showing me possible friends FROM MY CONTACTS that I might like to follow. So much for saying no. Facebook just ignored my preferences.
This was on a previous Android release, before the OS starting asking you about app permissions. Also, on those previous Samsung phones, Facebook was in the ROM, so it couldn't be deleted!
Since moving to more recent releases, I've denied access at the OS level to my contacts, etc., and I've yet to see Facebook ask me recently for permission to hook up with any of my contacts. Not like they don't keep trying, though, I bet.
So, guess what it kept doing? That's right, it kept showing me possible friends FROM MY CONTACTS that I might like to follow. So much for saying no. Facebook just ignored my preferences.
This was on a previous Android release, before the OS starting asking you about app permissions. Also, on those previous Samsung phones, Facebook was in the ROM, so it couldn't be deleted!
Since moving to more recent releases, I've denied access at the OS level to my contacts, etc., and I've yet to see Facebook ask me recently for permission to hook up with any of my contacts. Not like they don't keep trying, though, I bet.
It is possible that FB got your details from one of your contacts address book, rather than the other way round. On the other hand, you only need to leave that access open for a few seconds and they will slurp it up.
It seems that the government should take the same tack with their phones and laptops as enterprise does. To wit, only allow applications that are required for work to be installed.
I remember they wanted to ban TikTok in 2020, but we still use TikTok today. I hope this time TikTok will not be banned in the U.S. too, because for me, as for many other businessmen, TikTok is a great tool for business promotion. My SMM specialist analyzed two social networks: TikTok and Instagram, and TikTok was much better for publishing advertising content. In addition, there are many additional services that help promote any account, such as https://iamat.com/buy-tiktok-shares/ . So the idea of banning TikTok is really stupid.
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My guess is if it is banned in the U.S., it will be on the government level (e.g., on federal or state-owned devices).
The ban on Tik Tok is definitely a interesting topic and one that has been in the news lately.
It's understandable that different political leaders and parties have different opinions on the use of the app, but it's important to remember that the ultimate goal for many of these decisions is to prioritize the security and privacy of citizens.
It's understandable that different political leaders and parties have different opinions on the use of the app, but it's important to remember that the ultimate goal for many of these decisions is to prioritize the security and privacy of citizens.
Anyone else think those last two posts seem kinda weird? They read like they could have been written by ChatGPT. (But maybe that's just because I've been playing around with ChatGPT recently and am overly sensitive to the format of ChatGPT responses.)
A google image search of the avatar of the sitting guy shows the same image on Shutterstock and several Thai and Indian websites. An image search of the girl avatar leads to an Asian porn site.
And both have only a single post, mere minutes after being registered.
A google image search of the avatar of the sitting guy shows the same image on Shutterstock and several Thai and Indian websites. An image search of the girl avatar leads to an Asian porn site.
And both have only a single post, mere minutes after being registered.
Yes, this is the standard MO of spammers. Frequently they'll come back later and edit their posts to include [spam] links. This is the reason why the mods engaged on a thread lockdown earlier. If you see spam links from them (or others) please use the report feature,