Did the Chinese create TikTok just for mining data? Is it any worse than what Facebook already does?
TikTok (formerly known as Musical.ly,)is a Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance. Most use the app for creating short music, lip-sync, dance,comedy and talent videos around 3 to 15 seconds long as well as short looping videos 3 to 60 seconds song.
Friends of mine encouraged me to get TikTok when it first came out but I didn't and I'm glad now that I didn't.
A college student from Palo Alto California, Misty Hong, is suing ByteDance for breaking federal computer fraud law, the California Constitution's right to privacy law and more.
TikTok uses close up videos of faces from their user base to collect biometric data, the lawsuit claims. After you shoot a video and click on the next button, these videos are transferred to many other websites without your knowledge.
This occurs before you even post the video or save it, Hong's lawsuit states. According to CNET:
"Hong downloaded TikTok in March or April 2019 but never created an account, according to the lawsuit. Months later, she discovered TikTok made one for her. She created five or six videos using the app but never saved or published the videos. Still, TikTok secretly took the videos and her data without her knowledge and sent the information to servers in China, according to the lawsuit."
Well..um..that's a bit of a buzz kill from your singing dancing videos. Super glad to have dodged that bullet.
TikTok has been pulled from the App Store and Play Store in India, its largest market, and has seen similar protests from users in other major markets around the world, including the U.S.
The hacker group, Anonymous has posted on Twitter encouraging everyone to get off of TikTok:
Source: Twitter.com
Lawsuits aside, diving into the secrets to how TikTok works on the back end is quite revealing. A software engineer reverse engineered TikTok and found some alarming details he shared on Reddit:
Source: Reddit
I promise you, this isn't a smear campaign on TikTok as I'm objective towards the app having never used it or having an interest really for or against it. But researching TikTok bring up a lot of questionable data.
U.S. Army operatives aren’t allowed to use it, for instance, and the TSA asked employees to stop using it at work in February.
Not to mention the FTC is fining the company $5.7 million for mining data from children under 13 years old like email addresses, location, names, and age.
Instead of face privacy concerns head-on, TikTok and ByteDance continually attempt dodge them with convoluted location-based developer restrictions and subterfuge about where, exactly, the company is headquartered.
That alone should raise some suspicions. While there is, unfortunately, a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment in America right now, there are also real concerns about privacy being violated for those using the TikTok app.
Trump is threatening to ban TikTok with an executive order now, while Microsoft wants to buy TikTok. The problem is, trust.
With all the back doors that can be built into an app to remote filter data to servers in other countries, it would always be suspect. And in essence, it's Microsoft buying your data if you use TikTok, from China, to use for Microsoft products to finally compete with Facebook.
That doesn't exactly allay legitimate concerns about protection of our data. So yes, there are rumbles beneath the surface right now about all of this.
I believe it is a good time to assess priorities for what kids are exposed to. I'd like to opt out of this real life version of a Black Mirror episode we seem to be living in right now. We can do this by choosing what we expose ourselves to and our families.
Cognitive development of teens isn't exactly part of this business blog's focus, but it is something to keep in mind when making parental choices.
The news about TikTok's massive (intentional) data breaches is a good reminder that, even despite being in lockdown due to covid, we don't all have to keep staring at screens.
Do you use TikTok? Do your kids? What are some alternatives to staring at screens you enjoy? Comment below!
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