When a whistleblower recently exposed TikTok’s questionable data practices, where China-based engineers had “master admin” access to American user data, I did a lengthy teardown of TikTok’s problems, and also proposed some solutions. Myself and others have been writing about these concerns since mid-2020, when the app became popular in the US, but few understood how it worked. There are legitimate national security, data privacy, and corporate governance concerns with TikTok. If we take the behaviors of US smartphone users at face value, then this fear of Chinese-made apps is a giant nothing burger. If we take the DC policy circle perspective at face value, America should be in a national security crisis right now. The disconnect between what Washington, DC policymakers say about these apps and what ordinary Americans are downloading onto their smartphones could not be wider. If you happen to be an Android person, the top three free apps on Google Play are Temu, TikTok, and SHEIN. If you look at the top three free apps on the Apple App Store, they are Temu (by Pinduoduo), CapCut, and TikTok (both by ByteDance).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |