What do you think about Tik Tok?

[simps80]

Good insight from someone of the current generation!
Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[MountainGoat]

Well after reading this thread for a while I decided to get my son off of it. He came to me yesterday asking what he could do to get $20 for an add on pack for one of his x-box games. I told him I would give it to him if he quit looking at Tik Tok and deleted it from his phone. After some discussion as to why, he agreed.

Now I just have to police him on it, which should be easier since he agreed rather than just being told he can't have it. I guess I figure that gaming is the lesser of the two evils.

 

[Cruisertrash]

I’m only 21 so I have no idea what it’s like to be a parent but I had Tik tok when I was in high school and for a couple years afterwards and the issues with it mainly are that it’s super invasive (which has been mentioned previously) but because it’s so invasive the algorithm for what it shows you is stupid good. If you think instagram reels can be a time suck their algorithm sucks compared to tik tok. They will show you things you didn’t know you wanted to see or inside with jokes with friends if you mention it over text with them because they can see that. I stopped using it for these reasons and because when I had nothing to do I would look at tik tok and all of a sudden it would be night. Lastly there was once a like 2-3 week period where the tik tok moderators were on vacation or something and all it showed you was NSFW content not only the obvious either there was also a whole lot of videos of cartels shooting people and dudes getting there heads chopped off. I have heard it still happens sometimes. Thought it was something a parent should know about

Welcome to 2023 where you can watch war crimes live in real time on your own personal nightmare rectangle. What a world! I’ve heard some corners of Discord are like that too.

 

[gr8fulabe]

Oh I’m gonna let him have it!

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I mean…

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[gr8fulabe]

On a note more related to the original post, don’t believe anything that TikTok or China says about what they collect, or what they do or don’t share with the Chinese government. I’ve spent much of my career working with Chinese partners, and the Chinese government is on a different level when it comes to people’s understandings of what they can or can’t do. We tend to use the eye of freedoms in the US to look at these things & that is just not accurate. If you turn your phone on while in country, you are hacked almost immediately. I just leave mine off when traveling over there & only use my work computer since I don’t keep as much personal data on it.

China has enslaved or moved to internment camps, close to 2mm Uighurs. They force companies across the country to accept them as slave labor for “reeducation” purposes. When the USA passed the UFLPA (Uighur forced labor protection act), making it illegal for us firms to work with one anyone connected to the Uighur crimes, China just passed a law making it illegal for any of their citizens to comply with it. So China passed a law making it illegal for their citizens to not accept slavery, but they want us to believe they are going to draw the line at capturing all data they can from people. Not likely.

 

[Corbet]

Bridger turns 14 this month. He does not have any social media platforms on his phone or accounts on any we are aware of. He watches YouTube shorts like a zombie. So far that has satisfied him. TikTok would be the last platform I’d want. I figure when he asks for something I’ll give him the forum login I‘ve already created for him and he can waste all his time here like the rest of us.

 

[mcgaskins]

On a note more related to the original post, don’t believe anything that TikTok or China says about what they collect, or what they do or don’t share with the Chinese government. I’ve spent much of my career working with Chinese partners, and the Chinese government is on a different level when it comes to people’s understandings of what they can or can’t do. We tend to use the eye of freedoms in the US to look at these things & that is just not accurate. If you turn your phone on while in country, you are hacked almost immediately. I just leave mine off when traveling over there & only use my work computer since I don’t keep as much personal data on it.

China has enslaved or moved to internment camps, close to 2mm Uighurs. They force companies across the country to accept them as slave labor for “reducation” purposes. When the USA passed the UFLPA (Uighur forced labor protection act), making it illegal for us firms to work with one anyone connected to the Uighur crimes, China just passed a law making it illegal for any of their citizens to comply with it. So China passed a law making it illegal for their citizens to not accept slavery, but they want us to believe they are going to draw the line at capturing all data they can from people. Not likely.

Well said.

 

[3rdGen4R]

Not a parent, but their privacy policy is abysmal. As Dave said.. Stick to 'Merican data mining.

"If the product is free, then you are the product." ~Tim O'Reilly

I suppose tiktok isn't any worse than FB/Twitter/IG, but the platform is tuned to make the most of "implied, or forced consent." e.g. the app will continue to ask for permissions even if you've already said "nah fam." 1000 no's and one yes is enough. Even if I don't consent to the use of the app itself, and you send me a video... They're going to try to collect data on my device. Shit's wack.

I don't know how you wade through this stuff, especially with a kid. My brother is walking through the same issue with his daughter (12 y/o). She's glued to her screen, unless we pull her out and give her something constructive to do. These apps have been engineered to capture people's attention and make the most out of the data we provide.

Education is key, human's aren't very keen on being told what not to do. Even when something is harmful, we still find ourselves drawn to it. You can't really prohibit socials completely, especially as kids/people navigate the trappings of adolescence and social pressure.

If you can foster the reason why TikTok (Read as: Social Media) is a drain on the individual and a bane to privacy, it'll speak volumes.
We've all pulled away from socials because we see more constructive uses of our time. (He says as he types a dissertation on the internet..)
Our only advantage is that we grew up as these companies developed their strategies, and we developed our own incentives against them. Kids nowadays are thrust into a machine meant to capture their every waking moment with flashing lights, influencers, and keeping up with an ever changing, perfunctory zeitgeist.

I digress.

There's a consensual infringement on our privacy for a marginal gain of dopamine, ease of product access, or superficial human connection.

Here's some stuff pulled from their privacy policy.

On the information they collect (Some of these are abridged):

• Your phone and social network contacts, with your permission. If you choose to find other users through your phone contacts, we will access and collect information such as names, phone numbers, and email addresses, and match that information against existing users of the Platform. If you choose to find other users through your social network contacts, we will collect your public profile information as well as names and profiles of your social network contacts.
• Advertisers, measurement and other partners share information with us about you and the actions you have taken outside of the Platform, such as your activities on other websites and apps or in stores, including the products or services you purchased, online or in person. These partners also share information with us, such as mobile identifiers for advertising, hashed email addresses and phone numbers, and cookie identifiers, which we use to help match you and your actions outside of the Platform with your TikTok account.
• Usage Information: ...use of the Platform, Generated content
• Device Information: IP address, user agent, mobile carrier, time zone settings, identifiers for advertising purposes, model of your device, the device system, network type, device IDs, your screen resolution and operating system, app and file names and types, keystroke patterns or rhythms, battery state, audio settings and connected audio devices.
• Location Data: information about your approximate location, including location information based on your SIM card and/or IP address.
• Image and Audio Information: We may collect information about the videos, images and audio that are a part of your User Content... ...We may collect information about the videos, images and audio that are a part of your User Content... ... We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under U.S. laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content

On how they use your data:

• To infer additional information about you, such as your age, gender, and interests. (I'm not exactly sure why you need that data. Advertising is the carte blanche reason normally given.)
• Consistent with your permissions, to provide you with location-based services, such as advertising and other personalized content.
• To combine all the Information We Collect or receive about you for any of the foregoing purposes. (Even if you're not on the app, they will collect data on you if someone sends you a video/link/garbage.)
• To facilitate sales, promotion, and purchases of goods and services and to provide user support. (Something, something, you're the product.)

Who gets to use the data:

• We share the categories of personal information listed above with service providers and business partners to help us perform business operations and for business purposes, including research, payment processing and transaction fulfillment, database maintenance, administering contests and special offers, technology services, deliveries, sending communications, advertising and marketing services, analytics, measurement, data storage and hosting, disaster recovery, search engine optimization, and data processing.

Thanks for coming to my budget TEDTalk.

Did you type this on your iPhone?

 

[Inukshuk]

Even this Forum is public so choose wisely.

 

[MonPetiteShoe]

Did you type this on your iPhone?

This question sounds like a precursor for another question? I'm unsure what you're referencing exactly. That's too many words for my fat fingers to type on an iphone..

<sarcasm> Using a computer (I recently found out they have the internet on computers now.), I typed "Why TikToc bad? Asking for a friend." into ChatGPT's API and filled in the gaps with Autocorrect. </sarcasm>

 

[DaveInDenver]

This question sounds like a precursor for another question? I'm unsure what you're referencing exactly. That's too many words for my fat fingers to type on an iphone..

<sarcasm> Using a computer (I recently found out they have the internet on computers now.), I typed "Why TikToc bad? Asking for a friend." into ChatGPT's API and filled in the gaps with Autocorrect. </sarcasm>

 

[3rdGen4R]

This question sounds like a precursor for another question? I'm unsure what you're referencing exactly. That's too many words for my fat fingers to type on an iphone..

<sarcasm> Using a computer (I recently found out they have the internet on computers now.), I typed "Why TikToc bad? Asking for a friend." into ChatGPT's API and filled in the gaps with Autocorrect. </sarcasm>

OK... I was going to be impressed if you did that on your phone.

 

[MonPetiteShoe]

More fuel to the fire:

TikTok fined $368 million in Europe for failing to protect children​

A major European tech regulator has ordered TikTok to pay a €345 million ($368 million) fine after ruling that the app failed to do enough to protect children.
An investigation by the DPC (The Irish Data Protection Commission) found that in the latter half of 2020, TikTok’s default settings didn’t do enough to protect children’s accounts. ... TikTok didn’t sufficiently disclose these privacy risks to kids and also used so-called “dark patterns” to guide users toward giving up more of their personal information, the regulator noted.

In another violation of EU privacy law, a TikTok feature designed as a parental control and known as Family Pairing did not require that an adult overseeing a child’s account be verified as the child’s actual parent or guardian. The lapse meant that theoretically any adult could weaken a child’s privacy safeguards.

Moreover;
In April, TikTok was also fined in the United Kingdom for a number of breaches of data protection law, including misusing children’s personal data.


Fer feck's sake.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Frustrating! But very not surprising.

 

[simps80]

For any providers out there…
I need a xxl tin foil hat

 

[mcgaskins]

Earlier this year, it looked like Tik Tok might actually get banned here in the US. I was curious why the momentum and coverage essentially came to a screeching halt, but predictably, it appears a US billionaire investor may have something to do with it. Rand Paul fought against the ban of Tik Tok, and as it turns out, Jeff Yass and his wife have donated over $24M to Rand Paul since 2015. It just so happens Jeff Yass has a 7% stake in ByteDance (Tik Tok's parent company) which is worth around $28B, as in billion.

Hopefully this link won't be behind a paywall as I can "gift" a few articles per month. It's worth the read if you're interested in why it seems so difficult for politicians - even those who proclaim they seek transparency and accountability - to do what's good for their constituents rather than their wealthy backers.

The Billionaire Keeping TikTok on Phones in the U.S.

Financier Jeff Yass made a big bet on the app, and he’s a top donor to lawmakers who support it.

www.wsj.com

 

[DaveInDenver]

It's paywalled for me Matt.

But none-the-less, about Jeff Yass. He was the fourth largest political donor overall in 2022. All to Team Red. In fact #2, #3, #4 and #5 are Team Red. But #1 and #6 are all in for Team Blue.

The donations of the top 6 balance pretty evenly (about $217 million to Team Blue and $247 million to Team Red) so it's more about keeping the facade of the fake duopoly. It ping-pongs after that and I only bothered tallying the top 6 for this purpose. There's a crap ton of money sloshing around, though.

2024 Top Donors to Outside Spending Groups

www.opensecrets.org

One thing to watch is semantics. Rand Paul hasn't seemed to received $24 million directly from Yass. Open Secret's data only goes back to 2017 but in that span Paul's raised $28 million total from all sources. Perhaps including the 2016 cycle it could be significantly larger as 2016 was a year he was up for re-election.

To arrive at that number I suspect a lot of aggregation and assumptions have to be made based on money going into PACs and PACs disbursements. Just making the point that he's just one of 637 (Congress + President + VP) equal opportunity grifters with their hands in the pot. Yass shoveled $56 million at the lot of them just in 2022 alone.

 

[DaveInDenver]

@simps80

 

[KC Masterpiece]

It will rot his brain.

We dont have kids yet but have agreed no social media at all until they are 18. No positive benefits. Ill give my kids access to a .22 before a smartphone.

 

[MonPetiteShoe]

To arrive at that number I suspect a lot of aggregation and assumptions have to be made based on money going into PACs and PACs disbursements. Just making the point that he's just one of 637 (Congress + President + VP) equal opportunity grifters with their hands in the pot. Yass shoveled $56 million at the lot of them just in 2022 alone.

Down the rabbit hole!

Numbers are fun.
Jeff Yass has a calculated net worth of $28.9 Billion as of 9/21/23.
$56 Million is 0.0019377% of his current net worth.
Let's say someone made $150,000 per annum. They would be contributing a whopping $290.65 to campaigns.
That man has access to so many zeros.

Coincidentally, that number is incredibly close to the amount of money I need to drop off the fuggin' map and buy a lot of Toyota's.