You didn’t see the Democratic call outs for Trump to nationalize essential businesses? I see that as turning up the wind machine to see how far the reed will bend. That’s why I wrote “Neo-” before Venezuela. I didn’t mean to invite a mirror comparison.
No, and I get where you’re going with that. Just don’t like when we go to get at them and shoot ourselves in the foot. It’s snot a good look.
Well, I don’t much like that either. You want my data? Fine, but…
Some programmers decompiled the program and found that TikTok collected the maximum amount of data it could, which is why TikTok was banned.
The app tracks users’ phone hardware that means it tracks CPU type, hardware IDs, memory usage, disk space, etc.
It also tracks the apps you have installed. In addition to all this, everything network-related like, IP addresses, MAC addresses, WiFi access points, etc. are also monitored. It tracks if your phone is jailbroken or rooted. Some variants of the app have GPS pinging enabled, meaning the app was sending the users live location to HQ, every 30 seconds. This option was auto-enabled if the user added their location to their posts. The app sets up a local proxy server on devices for “transcoding media” but this was clearly an excuse to steal user info. The app leaked users’ email and secondary email used for password recovery and users’ real names and birthdays.
After this information was released, the U.S. decided to ban TikTok, and other countries will follow suit.
For TikTok to remain on the market, shareholders would naturally choose to sell the company to other states that are less “risky” to use these data for malicious purposes (as they consider).
It’s not just “throwing 5 dollars on the table,” Microsoft was the leading company that showed interest, not the only one, there is still competition to buy TikTok.
Does the parent company have any stated interest in selling? 
Hypocritical to blame tic tok for spying when western apps spy all the time. Heck, I can’t even say certain words without my phone recommending the same stuff to me an hour later.
You can’t even delete fb because they will retain a link to you that they track through cookies.
Yes you can. It’s why we have the GDPR for us EU nationals.
The GDPR adds a human right. The right to be forgotten.
From Supchina article (paywalled)
The famous tech investor Kai-Fu Lee (李开复 Lǐ Kāifù), who was the head of Google China before Google (mostly) left China in 2010, compared the treatment of Google in China with that of TikTok in the U.S., in leaked comments that went viral on the Chinese internet. Our translation of those comments:
When Google exited China, I had already left the company. However, the environment and regulations were very clear:
The key might be just not let Chinese based social media to operate in the US, and prevent Chinese capital from buying social media companies.
Otherwise the US would have to require tiktok and other Chinese social media to disclose their data flows .
Since the US has done neither at this point, and tiktok is already wildly popular among young people, forcing tiktok to sell to Microsoft might be the only option at this moment.
Too bad N.A. doesn’t have that. You have the right to be deleted but never forgotten.
Seems to me it has less to do with data concern and more with killing a competitor through state-sponsored means, just like the US cut down Toshiba, Alstom, ZTE, Huawei and now Tiktok.
I wouldn’t be against it. Why should we engage with a country that doesn’t allow competition? Why should they get to compete with state backing while we are shackled?
Aka famous CCP shill.
That French guy just sounds really bitter.
And no country state-sponsors more than China does. Every single relevant Chinese company is state-sponsored.
Makes no sense. There are many foreign companies that are extremely successful in China, even Linkedln with 32 million users. Here is a brief list
https://www.laowaicareer.com/blog/foreign-companies-in-china-making-it-big/
Very few companies operate independently in China and many of the brands listed are brands that come with a very-difficult-to-copy prestige value. These are few and far in between. It’s really hard to copy the secret recipe of Coca Cola or the status of Apple/Louis Vuitton. But MOST companies attempting to set up shop in China are told they have to make a joint venture with a local company…Think cars.
Think uber having its business model directly ripped off by its joint venture and then outcompeted in price.
Intel and AMD are able to do business because they NEED those CPUs to run their computers. They NEED Windows cause it’s hard to copy. They are dependent on those companies, but don’t think for a second that they wouldn’t clone whatever they can to make it in-house and cut out US companies.
But for most companies, you need that joint venture and local Communist Party branch of your company and that even if you are ‘successful’ in China, you still can’t take the money out for reinvestment elsewhere in the company and HAS to remain in China.
But I guess so many companies are trying to pull out because they’re doing so well… right?
They were winning so much they got sick of winning. Amirite?
Some more data on successful foreign brands in China,
“KFC now sells more chicken in China than in the United States. GM, along with its Chinese partners, sells more than 3 million vehicles in China each year. Cummins (CMI), the Indiana-based engine manufacturer, was selling roughly 40% of its products in China by 2019.
Indeed, American multinationals such as Yum! Brands (YUM), which owns Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell, have expanded rapidly in China. The number of Pizza Hut franchises more than doubled from 2009 to 2019. Meanwhile, McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) opened its two-thousandth store in China in 2014 and now operates nearly 3,000. Starbucks (SBUX) has been growing rapidly in the region and now has 4,100 stores in 160 cities in mainland China.
Western technology companies such as Apple (AAPL) have also seen enormous success in China. The country is now Apple’s third-largest market (behind the U.S. and Europe) and accounts for 20% of its revenue. Intel (INTC), Dell Computer (DELL), and Texas Instruments (TXN) are among other tech firms with footprints in China.”
So you can only become part of the Chinese market if you Joint venture or you’re too big to copy successfully.
This has always been a BS rule. They just use it to steal IP. It’s why they can sell things for so cheap while being competitive with technology. Why spend massive R&D money when you can just steal it and know the CCP will protect you?
Well of course it collects the maximum amount of data it can, so does pretty much every single app.
TikTok can not access things on your iPhone at least outside of the app. As soon as you install any app it is sandboxed from the rest of your phone.
The only info they can gather is your registration/provided details, how long you look at each video, what video you watch, things like that.
China spends more on R&D than the US.
Manufacturing economy vs service economy.
That’s adjusted for purchasing parity, aka meaningless.