Octopus Overlords

Zarathud wrote: Thu Aug 18, 2022 10:05 am My kids love to insult and make fun of Elon Musk. I am pretty sure twitter dies from demographic changes if he takes over.

Zarathud wrote: Thu Aug 18, 2022 10:05 am I am pretty sure twitter dies from demographic changes if he takes over.

LordMortis wrote: Thu Aug 18, 2022 12:48 pm

Zarathud wrote: Thu Aug 18, 2022 10:05 am I am pretty sure twitter dies from demographic changes if he takes over.

Agreed, which is why he doesn't want it. He knows if it becomes his private toy, it dies. He like to think he's in touch with youth with his love affair with memes and Twitter and the look like he's an environmentalist but kids see through that shit. When the kids go, the trend goes and then the news feeds follow. Whatever Musk is (and I have some choice words about that), he's not dumb.

LordMortis wrote: Thu Aug 18, 2022 1:01 pm It is currently a primary news source. When (presumably when) Elon Trump takes over and makes his toy "more open" then it will be slide into competition for Truth relatively quickly as youth flees and partisanism rips it apart.

Kraken wrote:Is Tik Tok Chinese spyware or was I brainwashed at some point?

Pyperkub wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 1:11 am

Kraken wrote:Is Tik Tok Chinese spyware or was I brainwashed at some point?

All US data is hosted in the US oracle cloud, and run by the US Tik Tok Co., apparently.

The recordings, which were reviewed by BuzzFeed News, contain 14 statements from nine different TikTok employees indicating that engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022, at the very least. Despite a TikTok executive’s sworn testimony in an October 2021 Senate hearing that a “world-renowned, US-based security team” decides who gets access to this data, nine statements by eight different employees describe situations where US employees had to turn to their colleagues in China to determine how US user data was flowing. US staff did not have permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own, according to the tapes.

“Everything is seen in China,” said a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety department in a September 2021 meeting. In another September meeting, a director referred to one Beijing-based engineer as a “Master Admin” who “has access to everything.” (While many employees introduced themselves by name and title in the recordings, BuzzFeed News is not naming anyone to protect their privacy.)

malchior wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 5:48 am

Pyperkub wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 1:11 am

Kraken wrote:Is Tik Tok Chinese spyware or was I brainwashed at some point?

All US data is hosted in the US oracle cloud, and run by the US Tik Tok Co., apparently.

They claim this but there have been credible allegations that the parent company ByteDance has accessed user data. Internal recording were leaked in June indicating Chinese developers had super user access to user data. It also seems at least plausible that there is backdoor access in the app.

Getting deeper - I know some of the leadership at TikTok cyber security. I declined personally to even have a preliminary discussion with them about a specific role. I didn't want to be in the blast radius if they blew up.

The recordings, which were reviewed by BuzzFeed News, contain 14 statements from nine different TikTok employees indicating that engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022, at the very least. Despite a TikTok executive’s sworn testimony in an October 2021 Senate hearing that a “world-renowned, US-based security team” decides who gets access to this data, nine statements by eight different employees describe situations where US employees had to turn to their colleagues in China to determine how US user data was flowing. US staff did not have permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own, according to the tapes.

“Everything is seen in China,” said a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety department in a September 2021 meeting. In another September meeting, a director referred to one Beijing-based engineer as a “Master Admin” who “has access to everything.” (While many employees introduced themselves by name and title in the recordings, BuzzFeed News is not naming anyone to protect their privacy.)

VPNOverview.com wrote:TikTok and the Influence of the Chinese Government
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese developer. For this reason, many wonder about the role the Chinese government plays behind the scenes. Just like the close inspection Huawei has found themselves under in recent years, TikTok isn’t trusted because of its connections to China. In the Chinese political system, the government has more influence in companies than is the case in Western countries. This means that the Chinese government could (and most likely will) collect data from users.

The Chinese government isn’t the only one collecting data; Western governments are also trying to gain insight into and influence social media platforms. The US government, for example, regularly attempts to obtain data through tech companies. Since the US is a constitutional state, however, there are several safeguards and laws in place that somewhat limit the government’s influence. The Western world has countless independent privacy watchdogs, while there’s no such thing in China.

Hacker group Anonymous claims that TikTok was primarily developed as spyware for the Chinese government. See tweet below:



Additionally, Anonymous has published a video listing the many dangers of TikTok. They quote a source that has done extensive research on TikTok: “Calling it an advertising platform is an understatement. TikTok is essentially malware that is targeting children. Don’t use TikTok. Don’t let your friends and family use it. Delete TikTok now […] If you know someone that is using it, explain to them that it is essentially malware operated by the Chinese government running a massive spying operation.”

These claims fit in with the recent developments surrounding TikTok. For example, Apple researchers announced that TikTok deliberately spies on users.

Claims keep piling up, showing that TikTok is a very invasive application that poses a substantial privacy risk. It seems that the data collection at TikTok goes much further than other social platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. This is surprising, since both of these companies have already faced backlash for the way they’ve dealt with user privacy. TikTok seems to collect data on a much larger scale than other social media platforms do. This, combined with TikTok’s origins makes it quite plausible that the Chinese government has insight into all of this collected data.

Browser trackers and data collection
Research from a German data protection website has revealed that TikTok installs browser trackers on your device. These track all your activities on the internet. According to ByteDance, these trackers were put in place to recognize and prevent “malicious browser behavior”. However, they also enable TikTok to use fingerprinting techniques, which give users a unique ID. This enables TikTok to link data to user profiles in a very targeted way.

Unfortunately, this happens with a great disregard of privacy – perhaps intentionally so. The German researchers indicate, for example, that IP addresses aren’t anonymized when TikTok uses Google Analytics, meaning your online behavior is directly linked to your IP address. An IP address provides information about your location and, indirectly, about your identity.

In addition, TikTok’s reasoning for this kind of data collection only raises more questions. What does the company mean by “malicious browser behavior”? What happens to the data collected through the trackers? Why does the company collect your IP address? And what gives TikTok the right to search your browser in the first place?

Spyware disguised as a social app
The tracking activities mentioned above are questionable to say the least. Members of online tech communities on Reddit and other platforms believe that TikTok deliberately collects user data. It’s claimed that the app is essentially a way to steal data, disguised as a social medium.

A user on Reddit used reverse engineering to figure out more about TikTok. Anonymous quoted the results in the video we mentioned earlier. The Reddit user discovered that TikTok collects all kinds of information:

• Your smartphone’s hardware (CPU type, hardware IDs, screen size, dpi, memory usage, storage space, etc.);
• Other apps installed on your device;
• Network information (IP, local IP, your router’s MAC address, your device’s MAC address, the name of your Wi-Fi network);
• Whether your device was rooted/jailbroken;
• Location data, through an option that’s turned on automatically when you give a post a location tag (only happens on some versions of TikTok);

Additionally, the app creates a local proxy server on your device, which is officially used for “transcoding media”. However, this is done without any form of authentication, making it susceptible to misuse. Moreover, the tracking of that information can be configured remotely. The app also didn’t start using the HTTPS protocol until recently, which meant user data wasn’t safe in the first place.

The fact that multiple sources have independently stated that TikTok is nothing more than spyware labelled as “social media” is reason for us to explicitly discourage the use of this app at this time. Official investigations into TikTok are ongoing, although these might take some time. In this case, we believe it’s better to be safe than sorry.

TikTok privacy policy facilitates massive data exchange with governments and other companies
In its privacy statement, TikTok indicates what information it collects about users. If you go to the privacy policy from your settings on the app, you’ll only see a summary of the complete information. Each section allows you click through to more complete explanations in the same document.

Upon closer inspection of TikTok’s privacy policy, one can conclude that the company behind the app is allowed to hand over all user data to both commercial parties and governments. “We will share your information with law enforcement agencies, public authorities or other organizations if legally required to do so, or if such use is reasonably necessary to comply with legal obligation, process or request.”

This is where the difference between the Chinese regime and political systems in other countries becomes evident. In China, the phrase “If legally required to do so” could simply mean “as soon as the government asks for it”. In addition, setting up a business entity by means of a mock structure could be enough to get your hands on TikTok user data. After all, the privacy policy allows the company to share all user data with entities with which TikTok does business.

The excerpts from TikTok’s privacy policy below show that they can easily share your data with a third party.





Critics rightly point out that even phrases such as “we will share your information (…) based on our legitimate business interests” offer too much opportunities for privacy infringement. This, among other worries about the app, has lead several countries to consider placing a ban on the app.

We asked investigative journalist and writer Maria Genova about her vision on TikTok. According to Genova, TikTok is a great tool for mass espionage. Genova says: “There’s a reason several countries have banned it. It’s unbelievable how much information an app like that pulls from your phone. (…) if it’s downloaded massively [in a country], you can observe the entire population and draw conclusions from that.”

Genova is well aware of the latest news surrounding such apps, and writes about them in her new book. “I’m writing [a book] which focuses on malicious apps and you don’t want to know how often an app changes its terms and conditions without anyone noticing. Google removes about 1 million malicious apps every year and those are all apps that were officially downloadable from the Google Play Store. An app can access your entire phone, including all your contacts, without you noticing,” said Genova.

stessier wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:43 pm Here's Bloomberg saying the same thing.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... share-twtr

pr0ner wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:34 pmThings must not be going well for his upcoming trial prep if this is the case.

ImLawBoy wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:46 pm Am I the only one who has seen this news?

ImLawBoy wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:46 pm Am I the only one who has seen this news?

pr0ner wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:45 pm

stessier wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:43 pm Here's Bloomberg saying the same thing.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... share-twtr

That's the article I linked to in my post!

pr0ner wrote: Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:34 pm Musk is back to proposing to Twitter that he buys the company for $54.20 a share.

Things must not be going well for his upcoming trial prep if this is the case.

Shares of TWTR have spiked on the news.

Elon Musk, in a surprise move that adds another twist to a monthslong drama that has preoccupied Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington, proposed a deal with Twitter on Monday evening that could bring to an end an acrimonious legal fight between the billionaire and the social media company.

The arrangement would allow Mr. Musk to acquire Twitter at $54.20 per share, the price he agreed to pay for the company in April, two people familiar with the proposal who were not authorized to speak publicly said.
. . .
Mr. Musk is scheduled to be deposed on Thursday and Friday in Austin, Texas, according to a legal filing.

LawBeefaroni wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 1:16 pm TWTR options have had this priced in for a while. The calls were crazy expensive. Curious if Mr. Fuck the SEC made some moves before he announced.

LordMortis wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 8:07 am Now that he owns Twitter will they stop talking about him every. single. day.

And I guess if you live under a rock:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/e ... 022-10-28/

Unagi wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 8:28 am

LordMortis wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 8:07 am Now that he owns Twitter will they stop talking about him every. single. day.

And I guess if you live under a rock:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/e ... 022-10-28/

So when do we all get to start hearing about Trump’s Tweets again?

LordMortis wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 8:07 am Now that he owns Twitter will they stop talking about him every. single. day.

Blackhawk wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:06 am I'm hoping that consumer pressure pushes companies off of the platform. If he wants a personal lunacy pipeline, let it be just that, and move any conscientious organization elsewhere.

Investment funds

The total sum of the deal also includes $5.2bn from investment groups and other large funds, including from Larry Ellison, the co-founder of software company Oracle, who wrote a $1bn cheque as part of the arrangement.

Qatar Holding, which is controlled by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, has also tossed capital into the pot.

And Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia transferred to Musk the nearly 35 million shares he already owned.

In exchange for their investments, the contributors will become Twitter shareholders.

Unagi wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 8:28 am

LordMortis wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 8:07 am Now that he owns Twitter will they stop talking about him every. single. day.

And I guess if you live under a rock:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/e ... 022-10-28/

So when do we all get to start hearing about Trump’s Tweets again?

Germany is a huge market for Tesla. Are you going to flout Germany’s speech laws? I would bet not. The Indian government basically demands social media companies provide potential hostages in order to operate in that country; you can’t engineer your way out of that shit. Are you ready to experience the pressure Twitter faces in the Middle East to block and restrict accounts? Are you ready for the fact that the Iranian government will fucking murder people over their social media posts? (Are you ready for how Twitter is being used by Iranians protesting that government right now?) Are you excited for the Chinese government to find ways to threaten Tesla’s huge business in that country over content that appears on Twitter? Because it’s going to happen.

gilraen wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 11:29 am Welcome to hell, Elon.

Germany is a huge market for Tesla. Are you going to flout Germany’s speech laws? I would bet not. The Indian government basically demands social media companies provide potential hostages in order to operate in that country; you can’t engineer your way out of that shit. Are you ready to experience the pressure Twitter faces in the Middle East to block and restrict accounts? Are you ready for the fact that the Iranian government will fucking murder people over their social media posts? (Are you ready for how Twitter is being used by Iranians protesting that government right now?) Are you excited for the Chinese government to find ways to threaten Tesla’s huge business in that country over content that appears on Twitter? Because it’s going to happen.