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Canada

Canada Security Intelligence Chief Warns China Can Use TikTok To Spy on Users (reuters.com) 40

Posted by msmash from the scrutiny-intensifies dept.
The head of Canada's Security Intelligence Service warned Canadians against using video app TikTok, saying data gleaned from its users "is available to the government of China," CBC News reported on Friday. From a report: "My answer as director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is that there is a very clear strategy on the part of the government of China to be able to acquire personal information from anyone around the world," CSIS Director David Vigneault told CBC in an interview set to air on Saturday.

"These assertions are unsupported by evidence, and the fact is that TikTok has never shared Canadian user data with the Chinese government, nor would we if asked," a TikTok spokesperson said in response to a request for comment. Canada in September ordered a national security review of a proposal by TikTok to expand the short-video app's business in the country. Vigneault said he will take part in that review and offer advice, CBC reported.
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Canada Security Intelligence Chief Warns China Can Use TikTok To Spy on Users More

Canada Security Intelligence Chief Warns China Can Use TikTok To Spy on Users

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  • "Shared" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bill, Shooter of Bul ( 629286 ) on Friday May 17, 2024 @04:09PM (#64479979) Journal
    That's not the same as saying that they don't have access. I haven't shared my salary information with my Boss. He has it of course.
    • It's a senseless claim either way. If the information is in China it's in China. The government doesn't have to "ask," they can "demand" or "confiscate." They could also tell TikTok to deny it. This would be true of anywhere the data resides, [washingtonpost.com] although some governments are more responsible about it than others.

      If we're going to try to limit what bulk information can go where, the argument would have to be that the potential harm is small, or else that trying to restrict it is virtually impossible, like it

      • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

        by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )

        If the information is in China it's in China.

        The data is not in China.

        TikTok's servers are in America, Singapore, and Malaysia.

        The CEO is a native-born citizen of Singapore, where he resides.

        • Re:"Shared" (Score:4, Interesting)

          by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Friday May 17, 2024 @05:04PM (#64480133)
          I see. It seems that is (mostly) so.

          TikTok has said under oath that Americans' data has always been stored outside China. Now it's saying there are big exceptions for creators - who it claims it treats differently than "typical users."

          https://www.forbes.com/sites/a... [forbes.com]

        • Re:"Shared" (Score:4, Insightful)

          by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday May 17, 2024 @07:44PM (#64480413) Homepage Journal

          TikTok's servers are in America, Singapore, and Malaysia.

          Although that's not *nothing*, the question is who exercises admnistrative control of that data. If the Chinese government demands data from ByteDance's management, and ByteDance's management complies, that data is not safe. Of course, even in the US a federal agency can obtain a secret warrant which enables them to help themselves to your private data held by a third party, and because it's *secret* you can't challenge the warrant's legality.

          The smart thing is don't put anything sensitive onto any kind of social media. Now some metadata may itself by sensitive for certain persons, like your approximate location at various times. Such persons shouldn't use social media at all, even if the data is hosted in the EU, which generally has the best data privacy protections in the world, because there is *no* country in the world where a company can defy a lawful warrant, whatever "lawful" means in that country.

        • There's a whistleblower who says his weekly task was to push all the data back to China.

          And yes, they lied, it seems.

        • Yup, there is definitely no way for data to be copied from another country so they can't possibly have it. Take that China!
  • ... might I interest you in this bridge I have for sale that connects lower Manhattan with Brooklyn?

  • Spying is not even interesting because who is putting confidential data on TikTok anyway? The interesting parts all revolve around shaping opinion through algorithmic suppression and promotion of content, and also planting of content.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by HBI ( 10338492 )

      If people are stupid enough to fall prey to propaganda, there's not much that can be done about that. They'll get it one way or another. But they aren't. Our belief that propaganda works is only a short term thing. People can see the truth eventually. Goebbels' lamented his inability to get even a percentage of his propaganda believed, no matter how much truthful news he wrapped it in. The CPSU pretended blithely that this wasn't true, but it didn't help them in the late 1980s. The Chinese are forced

      • I dunno about people seeing the truth eventually. We still have people who think Putin is denazifying Ukraine or that COVID was a hoax

      • Biden is not running at 60% because people can see their grocery and gas bills.

        Propaganda isn't magical mind control. It is to influence.

        Despite seeing their higher bills I still know people who don't think it is from inflation.

    • Says you. I record Tiktok videos exclusively from a government scif!

    • If they have an instant messenger there is all sort of private data.

    • Spying is not even interesting because who is putting confidential data on TikTok anyway? The interesting parts all revolve around shaping opinion through algorithmic suppression and promotion of content, and also planting of content.

      I think you're missing a big one in cultivating sources.

      Remember the American freestyle skier who decided to compete for China at the Olympics [wikipedia.org]? That was a pretty valuable PR coup for China.

      Now, she might have made that decision completely on her own based on experiences with family and friends, none of whom had any government interference.

      But I wouldn't be shocked if there were a few people around her acting on instruction of a Chinese government agency, and those people were given playbooks on how to influ

  • China isn't likely to find me useful enough to bother with - I've spoken with a Chinese 'political officer' or whatever they are called, and she made no attempt to honeypot me. Not that it would have worked, I'm very serious about security and like my clearance... But c'mon, at least flirt. Smile. Whatever. Give me something!

    CSIS, the RCMP, and the OPP are far more likely to want to mess with me than the CCP. They're human and make mistakes, and they have jurisdiction here to do so legally. And America

  • Betcha 100 bucks Xi also grabbed Facebook and Xhitter user info. Most commercial sites are not fortified against deep-pocketed state-sponsored hackers, only typical private hackers.

    • Most commercial sites aren't even fortified against their own disgruntled clerical staff. You're not really making a good point that they shouldn't all be shut down for it though, if indeed that was what you were trying to do.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        My indirect point wasn't that they all should be shut down, but rather this smells like China bashing or boogymanning (boogytizification?).

        I haven't seen how this alleged breach is related to the origin of TikTok, but maybe I missed something? It's something China can do to the other sites also.

  • can use tik tok to spy (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Ah, so it's just a Chinese version of NSA's Facebook/Google/Microsoft.

  • What is the point of saying TikTok can have its data harvested by China? TikTok is China owned, so of course China can access the data, that's not up for dispute, but guess what, Facebook can see data you put on Facebook. Twitter (X) can see data you put on Twitter, and Google / Microsoft digitally molest and scrap every single bit of information you give them.

    The reality is 99.99% of people don't care about security, and will never care. Let people access the stupid short videos that make them happy,

  • ... is available to the government of China ...

    The USA claims to own the whole internet and no-one asks how much goose-stepping through "personal data" happens. Remember, Canada has a data-sharing agreement with the US government, so they're benefiting from that goose-stepping. This is another "someone I don't like is doing it too" rant.

  • First Bytedance claimed that forcing them to sell tik tok would harm free speech. And there's no way we're owned by the CCP! After wearing out that avenue, they recently said they simply couldn't sell tik tok even if they want to because the CCP won't let them! So they flat out admit they are owned by the CCP and the the chinese government is certainly involved hand-in-glove with tik tok. And the idea of the CCP protecting your free speech is laughable if it wasn't so insidious. The mind boggles.

    Yet the

    • China doesn't do James Bond style "grab the plans for the new super science toy from Dr. Evil" spying.

      They're more into mass data hovering and sorting to see what needles they slurped up.

      They certainly have stolen some specific high tech and we certainly data vacuum but those are not the primary methods each side uses.

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