Leaked Documents Reveal What TikTok Shares With Authorities In the US (theintercept.com) 27
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Intercept: Documents published in the BlueLeaks trove, which was hacked by someone claiming a connection to Anonymous and published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets, show the information that TikTok shared with U.S. law enforcement in dozens of cases. Experts familiar with law enforcement requests say that what TikTok collects and hands over is not significantly more than what companies like Amazon, Facebook, or Google regularly provide, but that's because U.S. tech companies collect and hand over a lot of information. The documents also reveal that two representatives with bytedance.com email addresses registered on the website of the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, a fusion center that covers the Silicon Valley area. And they show that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security actively monitored TikTok for signs of unrest during the George Floyd protests.
The number of requests for subscriber information that TikTok says it receives from law enforcement is significantly lower than what U.S. tech giants reportedly field, likely because police are more accustomed to using data from U.S. companies and apps in investigations. TikTok enumerates its requests from law enforcement in a biannual transparency report, the most recent of which says that for the last half of 2019, the company received 100 requests covering 107 accounts. It handed over information in 82 percent of cases. Facebook, by contrast, says it received a whopping 51,121 requests over the same period, and handed over at least some data in 88 percent of cases. A 2018 document found in BlueLeaks titled "Law Enforcement Technology Investigations Resource Guide" gives police details on how to obtain records from Musical.ly, which was acquired by ByteDance and merged into TikTok that year. "In the releases shown in BlueLeaks, TikTok handed over multiple IP addresses, information about the devices used to register for accounts, cellphone numbers, and unique IDs tied to platforms including Instagram, Facebook, or Google if the user logged in using a social media account," the report adds.
"It is unclear whether these data releases were in response to warrants, subpoenas, or other requests, and the company would not give details, citing user privacy. The accounts for which TikTok handed over data in the BlueLeaks dump range from influencers with tens of thousands of followers to people who primarily post for friends."
The number of requests for subscriber information that TikTok says it receives from law enforcement is significantly lower than what U.S. tech giants reportedly field, likely because police are more accustomed to using data from U.S. companies and apps in investigations. TikTok enumerates its requests from law enforcement in a biannual transparency report, the most recent of which says that for the last half of 2019, the company received 100 requests covering 107 accounts. It handed over information in 82 percent of cases. Facebook, by contrast, says it received a whopping 51,121 requests over the same period, and handed over at least some data in 88 percent of cases. A 2018 document found in BlueLeaks titled "Law Enforcement Technology Investigations Resource Guide" gives police details on how to obtain records from Musical.ly, which was acquired by ByteDance and merged into TikTok that year. "In the releases shown in BlueLeaks, TikTok handed over multiple IP addresses, information about the devices used to register for accounts, cellphone numbers, and unique IDs tied to platforms including Instagram, Facebook, or Google if the user logged in using a social media account," the report adds.
"It is unclear whether these data releases were in response to warrants, subpoenas, or other requests, and the company would not give details, citing user privacy. The accounts for which TikTok handed over data in the BlueLeaks dump range from influencers with tens of thousands of followers to people who primarily post for friends."
Yeah, okay, aaaand (Score:1)
What exactly are we supposed to do?
Re:Yeah, okay, aaaand (Score:5, Insightful)
We're supposed to realize that Trump's assault on Tiktok is not motivated by questions of national security. Or even corporate security. That it's purely political grandstanding.
That's been my favored hypothesis all along, but this doesn't really prove that it's correct. After all, perhaps it hands over information to China that it doesn't hand over to the US.
OTOH, considering the descriptions that I've heard of Tiktok usage and users, it doesn't seem likely that they would generally impinge on US security. Banning it from use on US government property, including, e.g., military bases and definitely including computers owned by the US govt. seems reasonable. Anything beyond that seems ... abuse of power, probably illegal, and silly.
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^^ All of this. Trying to block it [except on government devices] is ridiculous. However, trying to reign in this kind of behavior across all platforms would be a good thing.
It's amazing how people in the US support the censoring [and general hostile takeover] of this platform while arguing that China shouldn't censor things... Double-standards are always bad.
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Banning should be not just on Federally owned devices, but also State, County, City, District, etc. And not just Govt owned devices, but also any/all government work. And also most government employees and people who work on government work or have government funding should also be prohibited, especially if they have any decision making authority or access to any non-public data -- and that includes their personal devices because blackmail can easily comprise people to hand over info they don't think is s
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I agree completely. China shouldn't be able to censor US apps and websites. Censorship is always bad, and doing exactly what we're saying "they" shouldn't do doesn't really reflect very well on "us".
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Except this isn't a double standard unless you think we should be able to selectively apply the Constitution and the law. Saying we should be more like China isn't really much of an argument is it?
A few logic problems there (Score:3)
First, a disclaimer. This post is not about what we should do. Do not assume that just because I point out that logic makes zero sense I necessarily support one policy or another. If you want to read my policy ideas, I'll probably put a paper out next year. This post is about the rather problematic logic in the post I'm directly replying to.
First, saying "we don't want the Chinese, run by an authoritarian regime, to own the communications media used by US citizens" is not censorship. Censorship is specif
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I'm not entirely sure I understand all of the points you're making, but I'll respond as best as I can. I don't think there are logical issues here so much as different ways of looking at the situation.
saying "we don't want the Chinese, run by an authoritarian regime, to own the communications media used by US citizens" is not censorship.
Blocking access to information is censorship. That may not be the goal, but it is an end result if TikTok is blocked in the US.
Censorship is specifically having censors pre-approve the content of communications before they can be sent or published. Colloquially, it's also used (erroneously) to describe a system in which you aren't allowed to say certain things
Merriam-Webster defines "to censor" as "to suppress or delete as objectionable". (I'm picking the most relevant definition here.)
https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
I was using the term "
That does make more sense, with different facts (Score:2)
I see, I think I understand the logic better now.
Given that, it not so much the logic not making any sense pee se, but it seems to me it would apply to a different set of facts. Two main factual points jump out at me.
It would be censorship, or at least "like censorship", of TikTok was a) blocked in the US b) in order to prevent the spread of the ideas being communicated there.
Those are the two main criteria of censorship - the communication is prevented, on the basis of its content, on the message being con
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Please, the whole thing is to cover up domestic incompetence and corruption. What is there to say? Who can argue with success? Reelection is a sure thing.
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This could be used against Trump. Just have to convince him that some part of his base or something his base loves has insulted him deeply.
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Trump's supporters love him more than anything else, in lieu of loving themselves.
They attach themselves to him, and then they have to do anything in their power to convince themselves that it was a good idea.
Cognitive dissonance rides again!
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You know that movie, "Minions"?
It's a documentary... just like 1984 is a diary, nothing about the future
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Banning it from use on US government property, including, e.g., military bases and definitely including computers owned by the US govt. seems reasonable. Anything beyond that...
What was it, a few years ago someone noticed that FitBit and friends would track your general location and distance. (They knew generally where you were.)
... there wasn't anything.
And then someone noticed you could locate solders and also find them and their paths on the site. And THEN they noticed they had been deplored, and routinely running where
Voila! Military base found!
*Any* president should directly stay out of routine management of the military and let "flow-down control" work -- I'm sure
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That is why I included private computers located on military bases. I do agree that that's a reasonable problem.
OTOH, I really doubt that Tiktok is the only application that this information can be sourced from. You could probably buy it from Google. That's not a reason to allow Tiktok, but it's a reason to think seriously about the reasons for this particular approach, and what else should be banned if this is a serious concern. Of course, that doesn't apply if this is just political grandstanding. Or
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> is not motivated by questions of national security
Whether it's valid or not, the concern is not crime but psyop.
Look at how the Chinese programmed American POW's during the Korean War and then apply that science to youths with an AI running the show.
It may still be science fiction and unfounded, but let's not pretend the issue is something it's not.
The actual BS excuse they're currently using is kompromat on government employees but that one is much easier to solve with policy.
Tiktok. (Score:4, Interesting)
How many crimes are commited with tiktok compared to other social media platforms? It's a bit specialised.
Deliberated leak (Score:1)
This is likely a deliberated leak by TikTok to show that the real threat to American privacy and security is not the Chinese government but the US government. And that TikTok would have no choice but to comply.
Happier before (Score:2)
Really? (Score:2)
And they show that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security actively monitored TikTok for signs of unrest during the George Floyd protests.
Setting aside the obvious racism and political motives.... These lazy assholes couldn't be bothered to investigate [giphy.com]? Sign up for tik tok and monitor it themselves? They needed some backdoor feed? This is like the guard dog asking for intruders to be brought to his dinner bowl.
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Sign up for tik tok and monitor it themselves? They needed some backdoor feed?
Have you ever heard of computerized automation? Have you heard of big data and data mining?
By requiring the company to send over the data including the owner's (and perhaps viewers') email/phone number, and then correlate with the big database they have collected, they can pinpoint any person, without the hassle and delay of filing a subpoena.
Are you still under the delusion that NSA and FBI not spying on you, after Snowden?
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Give us this day our daily TikTok (Score:2)