A hot debate topic in the US currently is the role of Tiktok, a Chinese based app, in data collection and intelligence for the Chinese Government. Due to the apps egregious data collection and selling practices, bills are beginning to be drafted and debated in congress whether or not the app should be banned.

All US government phones have already been required to delete the app if they once had it, outlawing the app for federal employees. How far will this go? Could you US government possibly ban an app used by a majority of the nation's youth? How much of a problem is this data collection in reality?

At what point does this data collection cross a line, US officials say that Tiktok crossed that line when the app began tracking user involvement in other apps even with Tiktok closed, which seems like a clear violation of terms on phones.

The guardian has a very nice article on the issue, which I will post below. Many kids, teens, and young adults in the US have become addicted to the app, myself included, so maybe getting rid of the app wouldn't be so bad in the long run.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/22/tiktok-bytedance-workers-fired-data-access-journalists

It's not like stealing our data is something new. Big technological enterprises have been in the eye of the storm for the last decade or so because of privacy issues, and every now and then we see some security leaks somewhere.

But hey, we don't like China and anything their government does to our citizens must be punished. If TikTok had been American, I can tell you it wouldn't have caused as much havoc, mainly because it wouldn't have been investigated so closely because we trust the US.

This is just how the world goes right now. However, I will say I agree that, should the information about TikTok tracking user involvement even when closed be real, this is a very serious issue, no matter who is behind it. People must always have the choice of enabling and disabling just how much information they desire to share like location and personal data, breaching that is inadmissible.

I never installed TikTok, even though I've seen a lot of content people around me send or show, so to me it would make no change whether it's banned, closed or active. If the app is not malicious it's up to us to determine just how much time we dedicate to it, so the fact people is addicted to it plays no role here. If it's malicious, get rid of it at personal or governmental level (and somebody use the chance to develop a safe version of it to gain millions).

I have mixed feelings about this.

Tik Tok could indeed be used by China to steal our data. They could also use the app to hack. The Chinese Government is hostile toward the USA. Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and sometimes Russia are our biggest adversaries. I could see them using apps to steal our information, user data, and credit card.

It is a legit concern. I understand banning it for govt employees on their govt issued devices. But as we have seen banning apps sometimes does not work. If tik tok is banned I could see people getting it via piracy apps. I don't know what the answer is.

I will say this though.

I do not have tik tok due to the security risks. An adversary country trying to hack, spy, and steal data is nothing new. In fact we would expected it though.

I am more outraged that our own govt can spy on us without warrants via the NSA and Patriot Act than I am a foreign adversary.

In 2002 when the Patriot Act was passed it gave the feds the ability to listen to phone calls, spy, social media post, look at what you search online without a search warrant. Then in 2009 the act was strengthened. The NSA spied on citizens without just cause.

This has set up a dangerous road in my opinion. It seems like its designed to slowly erode our rights. Look at how it has come out the NSA and social media colluded to censor speech that the feds did not like. In addition, the NSA admitted they spied on regular people that were not even known to be dangerous. Now the govt could be using facial technology.

I guess I am more concerned with our own govt spying on us, listening to us, using facial tech to track us, and censor speech than I am a foreign adversary . You can chose to download tik tock or not. You have no choice concerning the govt

Just my opinion of course.

It's been known for years that TikTok overextends the data it collects in comparison to pretty much any other app. If you have the app installed on your phone, it's already been copying your clipblard every couple of seconds since the moment you installed it, feeding it directly to a server that the Chinese government has complete access to.

Keep in mind, the US government is already doing this, and every action you take on your cell phone or computer is already being monitored. Every Windows PC and Intel processor have a backdoor that can be remotely accessed by US intelligence agencies, even if you're not an American. I'd say the key difference is that they aren't actively wishing death on half of the world, rather using this information to do it in secret against malleable, smaller nations. If you have a Facebook tab open on your browser, they know what all of your other tabs are, and they know your search history, and if you have the app installed, they're using your microphone for advertising purposes.

Tiktok should undoubtedly be banned, but by the same metric, Edward Snowden shouldn't be prosecuted and everything he's revealed should be stopped immediately. There needs to be a viable alternative to Tiktok that isn't as vicious towards saving personal data, but none of our social media services are really safe and need to be stopped as well.

If we go for one, we need to take larger corrective actions against all of these corporations and government bodies. For now though, the threat of an actively dangerous nation with all of the facial recognition and surveillance technology already in place for its citizens is far greater in my eyes. I'm in the "I don't wanna end up disappearing over a Winnie the Pooh joke" camp as there are Chinese police stations being set up all over my country already to return their citizens back home by force, who knows what they'll do after.