h/t J.J. Sefton’s Morning Report on A♠
What TikTok Hides Beneath Its Addicting Little Videos Should Scare You
President Trump announced his vow to ban the popular Chinese-owned app TikTok from the United States. It’s the right policy move — and it’s long overdue.
Helen Raleigh, The Federalist – Aug 4, 2020
…TikTok’s growth in the last three years is nothing short of phenomenal. It boasts more than 800 million active users worldwide and has been downloaded more than 2 billion times from the iPhone App and Google Play stores. It’s especially popular among young people, with 41 percent of users aged 16-24.…
In early 2019, TikTok paid a $5.7 million fine to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for illegally “collecting and exposing locations of young children, as well as failing to delete information on underage children when instructed to do so.” TikTok was under similar investigations in the United Kingdom and India for allegations over its collection and misuse of data gathered from children.…
…several vulnerabilities within the TikTok application… could easily allow malicious attackers to hurt a TikTok user by making private videos public or revealing information saved on the account, such as personal emails. Then, in February, Tiktok reportedly took advantage of an iPhone system loophole, enabling the app to access any data an iPhone user copies to his clipboard without the user’s knowledge.…
…works closely with the Chinese government to advance Beijing’s foreign policy objectives, promote government-sanctioned propaganda, help Beijing police dissidents, and censor free speech for users both inside and outside of China.…
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