Tiktok Has Our Retinas, Facial Scans, And Every Single Piece of Data On Our Phones Which Might Cause The Downfall of Civilization

(Source)- According to the Tiktok’s privacy policy, it collects consumers’ real-time location, search history and biometric data (e.g., fingerprints or facial imprints). Such information is invaluable to create identity profiles, which hackers sell to the highest bidder in Chinese black markets to commit identity fraud, or the Chinese government could use information it forces tech companies to provide to access Americans’ federal employee records. Government-sponsored hackers could create accurate scans of stolen fingerprints to help crack a two-factor security system.

Worse, TikTok requires the use of your device’s microphone to collect voiceprints. Without access to TikTok’s source code, which only the company possesses, it’s hard to know what the app does with the permissions it’s given. But there is evidence that it records even when you aren’t using it. TikTok users report that Apple’s app-spying feature, which alerts devices’ owners when apps access your microphone or camera, pinged them about TikTok accessing their mics when the app was closed. If TikTok’s access is as expansive as that implies, the Chinese government could use a smartphone as a listening device.

You hear about this shit in passing or see something about it when you are scrolling but, if you actually pay attention, the news about Tiktok is scary. Thinking that an adversarial government has access to every single data point in our lives isnt great. I think we get lured in because of the illusion that the world is just so big. It's not that big, I guess. If it was, why would a country the size of China care about our data and our facial recognition? I'd imagine it has something to do with global markets and information security and the ability to halt our styles of life the way we know it. 

We talk about all the tin foil hat stuff and what military leaders should do about the app. We've already seen what can happen if a bunch of troops are on TikTok. That's exactly how several battalions of Russian soldiers were found. They posted on tiktok or just scrolled on tiktok. The next thing you know, there were heat maps showing the location of the Russian troops. After that, a guided artillery round splashed down in the middle of their camp killing hundreds. That's fine when it's the Russians. When it's our troops, maybe we should have some mitigating factors in place. 

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Anyway, the conversation starts in Round 3 or you can just press play here.