Everyone collects our data… Apple, Google, third party apps… everyone. So what is the really concern with China doing it specifically? Everything I have tried to read about this just talks about how China will use it for ads, but that’s what tons of other tech companies are already doing… so why is China owning our data different?
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It’s bad for anyone to collect as much data as all of these technology companies have been doing, but it’s worse when it’s outside of the jurisdiction of your own government. For people living in the US, the US government is able to regulate technology companies to prevent dangerous misuse of all that data. Whether or not the US government is regulating the collection and use of that data enough is a whole other topic. An American company is going to be motivated primarily by profit and protecting its own interests. It may share the data with political organizations, but those organizations don’t want to destabilize or destroy the US, they just want to win elections.
If the company collecting the data is based on a foreign country and cannot be regulated by the US government, there’s no way to stop the company from using the data in ways you would not approve. The fact that, in this case, the foreign country is China makes it more likely the data will be used in harmful ways. ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, is known to have close ties to the Chinese government. The Chinese government can use the data to try and manipulate US elections or sway public opinion. They have a lot to gain from destabilizing or manipulating America’s political systems or economy.
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