ourdumbfuture
Kevin CollierFor the people who have advocated fruitlessly for years for the US to have any substantial data privacy law, it has to feel like gaslighting to see the country's national security apparatus finally focus on what TikTok collects and then conclude the answer is to ban that one app.
ニルス・スキニール@kevincollier It is all just a smokescreen.
WowSuchCyber@kevincollier also, does it means we Europeans should ban all the US social networks?
EDIT: "social network apps"
SoNotNic 🐍🐉🐈I am pretty sure the smart answer here is yes.
EvilKiru 🇮🇸 he/himJust the centralized ones and the ones run by billionaires and the ones run by corporations...
Andreas K@WowSuchCyber @kevincollier I'm almost sure that most of them are not GDPR-compliant, you know in light of the Schrems verdicts, but our “pragmatic” politicians are doing everything, including closing their eyes while pretending to read the verdict.
The problem is that not only US “apps” are a problem, but US cloud infrastructure of any ilk is problematic. And that starts to bite.
@yacc143 @kevincollier I totally agree. I expect SecNumCloud to be required for critical infra eventually, but in the meantime all of our data is migrated to the US cloud with some false assurance because datacenters are EU based... and the DPA's are not issuing clear instructions.
enmodo ⚛️ 🧬 🇺🇦 🍉@WowSuchCyber @kevincollier theoretically all apps that have EU users should be complying with European GDPR regulations in how they handle data from those users.
However I'll wager many social media platforms and clients for those platforms do not do anything of the sort.
It does beg the question - if you run an ActivityPub node with anyone but yourself as a user are you violating GDPR regs? Could an EU user come and sue you?
@enmodo @kevincollier if your node is not in the eu and if you don't process personal data of eu people, there is no ground. If you follow eu people you will get what their instance pushes to you... I'm a bit confused about the legal basis though because you do not sign a contract or consent to anything when you subscribe. So it will probably be legitimate interest... GDPR vs Mastodon is not really clear yet but it's very doubtful you'd be at risk.
el homo ᓚᘏᗢ 💗💋👑🫶@WowSuchCyber @kevincollier tit for tit 😈😈👿😈 (i like tits👺)
Martin Neujahr@WowSuchCyber @kevincollier I already have banned all US social network apps from my devices.
Zack Whittaker@kevincollier it continues to baffle and bewilder me that, as someone not from here, why the U.S. is the only (ostensibly) functional democracy that doesn't have a data protection or privacy law, where everyone else has one? if America is best at one thing, it's creating a permissive environment that allows corporations to sell and share our data at the expense of our privacy and security and face no repercussions when it inevitably goes to shit. case in point, the past ten years.
indyradio@zackwhittaker @kevincollier Oracle is a CIA creation, and also the leading broker of your stolen data. Why isn't the lawsuit against them in the news? You both know full well. Domestic ops. No democracy.
creek@zackwhittaker I suggest reading "Goliath" by Matt Stoller, but the short answer might be "because neoliberalism"?
@kevincollier
@kevincollier
"Nurture-boy" Ric Flair@zackwhittaker
It's because the hugely important US tech industry is built entirely on abusing privacy.
@kevincollier
It's because the hugely important US tech industry is built entirely on abusing privacy.
@kevincollier
Bynkii@zackwhittaker @kevincollier @briankrebs welcome to the land of prosperity gospel, founded on the idea that the rich are blessed by the Lord himself, so the rich are a benighted class, therefore their endeavors are innately pure and good.
After all, the only ones harmed are the poor, who are only poor because they are hated by god. Otherwise they would be rich.
Once you understand how foundational that is to the US, literally everything about this country makes terrible sense.
Alun Jones@zackwhittaker @kevincollier democracy: one person, one vote. US democracy: one lobbyist, one vote.
Marty@zackwhittaker @kevincollier In the U.S., there is one unwritten right that supersedes nearly all others: the right to get ripped off.
It gets smuggled into arguments about government overreach, but when people argue against regulations and consumer protections, all they are doing is making sure that our right to get ripped off (by those who already have much greater means) remains intact.
Mike Parsons@zackwhittaker @kevincollier the common theme is a government that allows big businesses to operate without having to account for their externalities. See also: fossil fuel companies and climate change, chemical companies and PCBs, socia media companies and white nationalism, etc.
elegantwino@kevincollier But all the American apps that basically do the same thing are cool?
WndlB@kevincollier AND where the product is not functional UNLESS you 'agree' (ha ha) to the T&C, which gives your counterparty ALL the rights.
@kevincollier Well if Tiktok would limit their practice of collecting data and giving it to a government to the US government, then nobody would complain.
Actually, considering that the US #TooBigToFail surveillance capitalists sell the data actually to any comer that pays, I'd be surprised if the Chinese Communist Party is not indirectly buying data collected by Google & Meta. 🤷
@yacc143 @kevincollier They do have other deals with Google, and that would not be a surprise, Mr. Gnu.
@yacc143 lol looks like the gnu for gnu linux, though you say yacc
Avocado Toast@kevincollier TikTok panic is where the xenophobic and tech/privacy illiterate shake hands and make agreements
Runefar@kevincollier TBH the issue with privacy laws in the first place is that realistically the government has to take a nuaced consideration of how the technology actually works to best ensure the laws make sense.
@kevincollier The issue is they are resistant to do that with any technology and would rather standardize. They know enough about the technology to know what will happen if they just like banned companies from using data and how it might even negatively affect privacy in some ways, but they dont want to take a more nuaced look at it and tbh neither do some of the privacy advocates sadly.
ALB1@kevincollier of course, its the most prominent one that can’t be moderated and have the “woke” smashed out of it. Also sus data collection should only be for us to manipulate… us.
Flaming Cheeto@kevincollier somewhere, someone is seriously making the argument that doing this will enable *American* based social media companies to sell similar data to China to improve the balance of trade
Summer Lane@kevincollier well yeah, that’s because it is gaslighting . it’s not data privacy they care about, it’s data access. They want for American corporations to still have dangerous unconscionable levels of data collection
The Skeptic's Book of Lists@kevincollier A good point.
Viss@kevincollier "the inverse tsa approach"
the regular tsa approach:
one guy tries a shoebomb: everyone has to take off their shoes
one guy tries a laptop bomb: now everyone has to take their laptops out
it's inverse:
every company steals data, spies on users, treats people like cattle - but only one of them, the most popular by far, gets banned.
its like they forgot about faceapp, meitu, ingress, pokemon go, life360 and the cadre of others
JenX@kevincollier Politicians only care about national security issues insofar as they align with their political ambitions. https://mstdn.social/@jasonkint/110073118245311616
Jason Kint (@[email protected])
Attached: 1 image Let's get to where things started to get even more interesting related to TikTok hearing. High-risk countries for all of that accessible personal data across the Facebook platform. Russian developers in Iran? China? Russia? Yes, TikTok 2023 actually seems super, super benign compared to this. /6
Grumble@kevincollier Maybe the US national security apparatus is butthurt because TikTok isn't giving them access to what TikTok collects?
BeardlyDavid 
@kevincollier they’re not banning TikTok over privacy abuse, they’re banning TikTok over CHINESE privacy abuse. To them it’s okay if THEY do it.
Mister President we can’t have TikTok steal all the data, it’s GOOGLE’s job!!!
@kevincollier Like Churchill said about exhausting all the alternatives ... guess we haven't quite finished that process
Tom Stoneham@kevincollier
Surely it just is gas lighting? My guees is that this is driven by data protectionism and all the national security stuff is BS sold to politicians by lobbyists.
The big data miners don't like competition, especially when they are banned in China.
hypervisible
Hughster@kevincollier The problem with TikTok isn't that it collects data. It's that it's controlled by the Chinese.
Chris Jeter@kevincollier
The TikTok ban isn't about protecting the privacy of Americans, it's about protecting the profits of American shareholders (aka political donors).
The TikTok ban isn't about protecting the privacy of Americans, it's about protecting the profits of American shareholders (aka political donors).
@kevincollier ah shite I didn't think of it like that. damn you :)
@kevincollier Its a Sh&@$, show for Meta lobyist to gain followers as they are a failing app.
Brian Danger Hicks@kevincollier Between this and that time I asked for people to care about voting machines I'm starting to think this monkey's paw isn't going to grant any of my wishes right
pawlicker@kevincollier just wait till you learn they datamine the Fedi too and have been with boardreader on a instance (boardreader sells data to the feds).
https://freespeechextremist.com/notice/ATw0Bt91WuzAFjFkFk
https://freespeechextremist.com/notice/ATw0Bt91WuzAFjFkFk
pistolero: “The 4's that are green-on-blue are 402 responses going to Facebook. Facebook is hammering the fake shit from boardreader, like half the reqs coming into FSE are Facebook's bot. (I can tell it's f...”
pistolero (@[email protected]): “The 4's that are green-on-blue are 402 responses going to Facebook. Facebook is hammering the fake shit from boardreader, like half the reqs coming into FSE are Facebook's bot. (I can tell it's f...”
Kevin Karhan 
@kevincollier well, #TikTok isn't a #PRISM #program collaborator and doesn't commit illegal #espionage [as per #SurveillanceCapitalism] so #TikTok threatens the #CyberHegemony of the #US Government!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM
@kevincollier it never was about #Privacy or #NatSec, but being able to #spy on people around the globe!
That's why it's deemed "suspicious" by TSA & CPB if one doesn't have a #Facebook account.
Popstar Tourist@kevincollier Here's an interesting perspective on why it's TikTok in particular that's being targeted (short version, because young queer people use it to build community)
source: https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMorn/status/1639089417414385664
dawnfry@kevincollier
Government computers are already locked down against most if not all social media. This is nothing new, and VERY overhyped.
What is being lost in the rush to vilify the app is that it is highly used by marginalized and minority communities to exchange information about their oppression and to educate. It also has one of the best and easiest to train algorithms among all social media (that has one, of course). And of course, young people use it, so it must be terrible.
And mind you, most US-based companies have already stolen your data, have had data breaches that have made it available to bad actors (including government breaches), and/or are allowing the domestic terrorists who work for them free access. But those stories don’t make for good xenophobic content.
toxtethogrady@kevincollier I suspect that privacy is the least of their concerns; they are more concerned that the TikTok Teens are gaining too much power and influence and could screw up everything the system has worked hard to achieve. I have greater concerns with Gab, Gettr, Parler, Truth Social, 8kun and Twitter. And Gettr is actually controlled by a Chinese criminal, while 8kun is run from Russia (without love)...
Steve Torrente@kevincollier The bill will be written in the form of a Padme/Anakin meme.
fluffy 💜@kevincollier @burritojustice also I’ve heard a conspiracy theory that the reason they’re focusing on TikTok isn’t because of the app’s privacy stuff but because there’s a lot of leftist content that’s shining a light on some of the reprehensible stuff the GOP is doing
Laurie Voss@kevincollier they could not make it clearer that it is not about surveillance, it's about surveillance by somebody other than them.
The Lady Parabellum@kevincollier this hasn't ever been about security, privacy, or data collection.
It's about how the younger generation used it in the last election. They're trying to preemptively strike against the "enemy's" comms prior to the next election.
The statements they made otherwise are just set dressing.
Jonah Stein@kevincollier Definitely gaslighting on privacy...OTOH, we saw how much damage Facebook, Russian and right wing propagandist have inflicted on democracy world wide. From Brexit to Trump to the rise of white christian "nationalism", they are clearly at the center of much of what has gone wrong over the last 6 years.
Do we really want the Chinese Government to have that much "algorithmic" power over the media Americans consume?