Tik Tok

[Lamb]

I know what Tik Tok is because I was a sub at a high school...but my husband asked me about it last week. He was afraid to watch a video and now with claims that China is spying through that app, he was right to be fearful.

Tik Tok is a bunch of short videos that people create and the majority of the ones I've seen are of people dancing.

President Trump has given the announcement that Tik Tok needs to be bought by an American company or it will be banned nationwide.

 

[tango]

There's a lot of stuff out there that causes concern, and it's not just the Chinese.

My Android tablet is old, so runs an old version of Android. It's a version too early to allow me to specify which permissions an app can have - when you install it gives you a list of what it wants and you either approve everything or don't install the app. It keeps bugging me to upgrade YouTube, to the point now the version I have won't run at all. But why a video playing app needs access to my contacts remains a mystery. Why a weather app needs to be able to send text messages and read contact information remains a mystery. Why can't software writers go back to doing it properly, and figuring what they actually need rather than just grasping at everything in sight?

Honestly, if Tik Tok were bought by an American company that wouldn't make intrusive spying any more acceptable.

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

now with claims that China is spying through that app, he was right to be fearful

What do you think China will get from our phones?

 

[psalms 91]

I will not use it

 

[Lamb]

What do you think China will get from our phones?

Personal information such as our names, addresses, GPS location, contacts, payment information, our photos and videos.

 

[tango]

What do you think China will get from our phones?

The trouble with an app that reports back to some unknown server is that you don't know what they're getting from your phone. Android is better these days in that you can control individual permissions rather than being presented with a list and either accepting that the app needs everything or not installing the app at all. Even then very few people ever actually read things like user agreements or just what an app proposes to do.

If something is running on your phone and has permissions to do just about anything it could be doing, well, just about anything. It could become an eavesdropping device. It could track where you go. If it tracks where you go and the track shows you're regularly in a military or business establishment, it could turn on audio recording when it's within a certain radius, then upload the recording as soon as it has a wifi signal.

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

Now you know how everyone else outside of America has been feeling for the past decade...

 

[tango]

Now you know how everyone else outside of America has been feeling for the past decade...

You're going to have to give me a clue here.

I mentioned further up that intrusive spying isn't acceptable whoever is doing it. It's pretty naive to think it's just the Americans doing it.

 

[Alexander]

I don't use TikTok as a creator but I do use the social networking website as a viewer. I like watching lives and shorts posted on the App, and I personally find these short videos more engaging. Some people do have privacy concerns about the Application though.