Hacker News Reader

Comment by NotYourLawyer | Hacker News Reader

None of this is good, but… how much damage can they really do with this data?

Imagine an actually-good version of the Russian "influence operations" in the US (where they bought a couple hundred thousand worth of Facebook ads for the 2016 election to run shitty memes that didn't even sound like they were written by native speakers).

If TikTok is this good at figuring out your general interests, it can probably figure out your political leanings as well. And tailor your content accordingly, in a way that furthers the interests of China. Whether that be by increasing/decreasing propensity to vote, increasing outrage, planting false narratives, etc.

"What if China did what facebook did, but more competently" lol

Well, it's undeniable that they are more competent than Facebook in this domain; the proof is in the pudding. So in your terms, you're trading an incompetent domestic influence operation for a competent foreign one. Hard to see how that's a good trade for the US.

Yeah. The main thing that bothers me is that the media isn't discussing any generalized data protection reforms as a response to this - the story is "data collection is only scary because it's china doing it."

It's not just collection though. If China had access to everyone's credit card purchase info (they probably already do, but whatever), that's "data collection". But with TikTok they also have an obvious mechanism to directly affect behavior using the data they collected. That's not something you could easily do with just demographic or financial info alone.

Consider the potential for espionage when you have the up-to-date social graph, voice/facial scans, home/work/hangout addresses, phone number + email, and browsing interests of thousands of government employees of an adversarial foreign power.

they can steer the minds of impressionable kids.

I (not a kid tho) started using tiktok a few months ago and it was kind of good content mixed with algorithmic crap but what stood out to me was that I was getting an unproportional amount of anti tesla videos.

Like people wiggling parts in the interior and compairing them to their own chinese EV cars like MG. Multiple different accounts.

Teslas have a pretty bad build quality.

I would 100% bet a nut that is steered

New Tiktok challenge: get as big a crowd of people together as you can for this dance! - reasonably good approximations of number of people in a given area or organization

New Tiktok challenge: pinch the sunset from a hilltop - combination of timestamp and known astronomical reference allows calculation of altitude allowing remarkably detailed topographic map around population centers

New Tiktok challenge: trying on all of my shoes - good proxy for calculating disposable income and thus mapping economic activity

New Tiktok challenge: how many flowers can I find in my backyard - reasonable proxy for determining both long term climate and recent weather activity in an area

New Tiktok challenge: trying on my boyfriend's uniform - estimate number, location, and rank distribution of military units

Nation-state level actors with millions upon millions of videos to analyze should not be underestimated.

…you know China has satellites and stuff, right?

New tiktok challenge: going through my pantry to show the chinese government how much non-perishable food I have

New tiktok challenge: seeing how much of the interior of this building I can map

New tiktok challenge: demonstrating my physical fitness level

New tiktok challenge: how many different angles of the presidential motorcade can I film

Yes, China can gain intelligence from other sources like spy satellites. I would likewise describe chinese spy satellites as a potential us national security threat.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com