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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My immediate thought is that apple and Google won’t go to war with the US, so that’s the first difference.
It has more to do with the Chinese government using the platform to manipulate and influence Western users. We’ve seen foreign governments use social media to sway elections and cause other social issues.
It’s not really about the data collection. It’s about access to people. And yes, other platforms have similar access. The difference is that TikTok is Chinese owned and provides the government with direct and complete access to the platform.
Info collecting goes beyond targeted ads, but more into political distortion. Look at the Cambridge Analytica [scandal](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebook)
Facebook, Google and TikTok can collect your location, income and political leanings just from what you search, watch and click.
US politicians don’t care about tech companies collecting your data, they use it to enhance their campaigns. Their worry is that like Russia, China can use the collected data to run misinformation caimpagns during election cycles.
Social media platforms (reddit included) exist to harvest your data, they only “”care”” about TikTok because non-Americans now have that data.
You already know how well Google/Facebook tracks users for their ads. Now imagine a foreign power who is not exactly an ally is tracking the US population and can also track specific people. Maybe they use GPS data to see specific folks coming and going from a Dept of Defense building. Perhaps they turn on the mic when the user isn’t aware to record conversations. Even if you’re not on TikTok, they can still track you indirectly through your friends as they can mine the data of people you do know who are on TikTok. This is why the first idea wasn’t to ban it outright, but to have a US company run it in the US.
Because companies can’t use this data to threaten or disappear people for daring to criticize the government. The Chinese government routinely does these things, and Chinese law basically mandates that they have access to this data for that purpose.
A few things they could do:
1. Share information with the Chinese government. The Chinese government has a much more direct line with domestic companies than we do. So this is something Apple/Google would have more autonomy to resist from US.
2. Use the data to develop better technology. AI is famous for requiring enormous amounts of data. And TikTok, between its content and its usage patterns, is a goldmine of data. The US obviously would prefer the best technologies to be controlled by US companies.
3. Have targeted monitoring of key figures. Nuclear silo employees, ambassadors, congressmen, company executives, celebrities, etc. They may potentially collect – content viewed, viewing times and patterns, GPS location, … Any of these might be helpful to intelligence campaigns.
4. Push selected content. Having a viewership of an entire country’s youth is very powerful. It would be easy to start a propaganda campaign and influence kids to be pro or anti certain issues. For example if every 20th video they push a short clip about how peaceful China is.
The crux of the argument is that China uniquely has very direct influence over its domestic companies. Couple that with TikTok being a top platform in the top technological subcategory, and this is why people are concerned.
Foreign social influence, by collecting your data, China can effectively push narratives that favor them on your social media tailored to you, ranging from downplaying their cultural atrocities, promoting their “peaceful rise not at the expense of any other nation”, to influencing the election of your local politicians and officials that will favor Chinese expansion and turn a blind eye, all the while they cry loudly about how foreign nations have no place to interfere with their domestic policies, rules for thee but not for me. You would be surprised how subtle it is and how the average joe on the internet can fall for it.
The most likely form it would take would be to use the algorithm to influence the public.
What videos you get shown is decided by the algorithm. How that algorithm decides what videos get shown to many of people and which hardly get shown to anyone is totally unknown to us. There’s nothing stopping the Chinese government from saying to TikTok “I want you to bury most pro Hong Kong democracy videos. Not so much that anyone can prove you’re intentionally burying them, but enough to silence much of our critics.” And that’s very likely what they’ve already done. If war broke out with China, I fully expect the amount of pro Chinese videos on TikTok to be suspiciously higher than the amount seen on any other platforms.
As far as data collection goes, they likely do what Cambridge Analytica did: use user data to target people with videos likely to persuade them to a pro china stance. It’s also plausible that the Chinese government requests and uses that data to better exploit high value targets. Maybe they discover search histories that they can use to blackmail someone with high security clearance.
The short answer is, unlike those companies, China can use the data for surveillance/warfare purposes.
TikTok collects an incredible amount of data including but not limited to your notes, location, contacts, credit card information, age, phone numbers, addresses, biometric data, and even keystrokes.[1](https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1108843837/can-tiktok-be-trusted-with-users-data) [2](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/technology/tiktok-browser-tracking.html) [3](https://www.tiktok.com/legal/page/us/privacy-policy/en)
They could find the family of military members and blackmail them, push propaganda, find and arrest dissidents that fled the country [1](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-operating-illegal-overseas-police-station-chinese-government), conduct corporate espionage, and commit identity fraud. These are just SOME of the many things that the data could be used for.
If you think that China won’t or can’t access the data, here is a quick excerpt from the Associated Press regarding some of China’s laws, “China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law states that “any organization” must assist or cooperate with state intelligence work while a separate 2014 Counter-Espionage Law says “relevant organizations … may not refuse” to collect evidence for an investigation.” [1](https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-bytedance-shou-zi-chew-8d8a6a9694357040d484670b7f4833be) According to reports, the data may have even been accessed already, multiple times. [1](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-tapes-us-user-data-china-bytedance-access)
The companies in the US while one could argue are also seeking to exploit us, do not present as large of a security risk. They are not going to hand over our data to foreign powers. They are not required to have a backdoor.
The TOS gives them access to far more data from your phone than what Meta or Google collect. It essentially is everything on your phone. Biometrics, passwords, text messages, etc. Also, it is about the content beyond shared as well. The version of TT in China doesn’t allow things not fit for kids like we see here.
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