Re:ByteDance plans TikTok IPO to win U.S. deal as deadline l...
by nightski on Friday September 18, 2020 @06:19PM
(#24522429)
It was discovered the TikTok app was specifically gathering a lot more data from your phone than was relevant to the service at hand. This was a big thread on HN a little while back.
I do agree with your second point however.
Re:ByteDance plans TikTok IPO to win U.S. deal as deadline l...
by viscanti on Friday September 18, 2020 @11:55PM
(#24524871)
Sure. My point is that the data they collect isn't especially valuable given how much other data is easily accessible for a nation state. The value isn't zero but if the Chinese Government loses the data about what TikTok videos people watched they aren't going to lose any sleep over it.
The data isn't the most valuable part. Which videos someone likes to watch could be worth something, but given how much easily available information there is already online this isn't a particularly valuable (or sensitive) thing.
The much bigger issue is the algorithm that decides what content to show people. The CCP could decide to leverage that black box to push content that influences users in the ways they desire. That's why the CCP passed a new law to allow them to ban the sale of the algorithm (and they've expressed their willingness to use that to actually block the sale of the TikTok algorithm). Their goal is to either keep control of that so they can influence international users or to keep their potential involvement opaque so that anyone who engages with the algorithm continues to be unaware of the fact that the CCP can push content to any user they want.