Tik Tok
 

serious non-Parf question... my 14 yo daughter loves Tik Tok and uses it on her iPhone. Its a known spyware and banned in some countries.

is it enough of a threat to have her stop using it?

...or can we take some basic measures to manage it?

The US Government has just banned it on all government and military equipment.

It's from China. Odds that it is totally benign are about zero.

Underage.
The fact you don't own anything you post to it.
The fact they are known to censor vids to only those that are pretty/skinny.

That said the kids I know love it as well, but they don't know what oppression from an app is. Especially if you're trending and not making royalties... At least YouTube will give a check.

If you’re comfortable with the Chinese government knowing everything about your kids and sharing it with whomever they want, have at it.

My kids have devices (son is getting to the age where he wants more autonomy over what he uses it for, daughter is still young enough where she doesn’t really care). My rule is simple - you use devices and apps approved by me and in a way approved by me, or you don’t have a device. When you turn 18 you can do what you want but until then it’s my way or the highway as far as that goes.

That said, I give them some latitude but there’s no way I’d ever allow TikTok. No way.

Not allowed on any devices connected to my work WiFi either (been policy for a couple of months). We do a lot of gov. stuff and apparently our IT folks thought it was enough of a potential risk where it wasn’t worth it. So you delete it or don’t connect your personal phones to the WiFi. Those are your choices.

If it is on your wifi, can you block all connections to China? A good developer would use store and forward to send your data when it can get through

She should be fine, just have her back up the nuclear launch codes and then delete them from her phone.

Here use is limited to the phone and its on a mobile plan- no wifi access is allowed. I did ask her to turn off bluetooth and wifi but I understand that that won't limit Tik Tok.

That said its clearly a bad player but asking her to shut it off will be a 'big event'. Also seems she has heard that the U.S. move to shut it down is political and not a technical argument related to spyware. So somehow the users have been getting 'information' to help respond to criticism of the app.

this could get ugly

Good luck

Nokia. Or flip phone.

Good luck on your hill. May you not die for naught

The correct way to think about this is to ask yourself this question:

Is there anything the Chinese military or Chinese companies might possible do with all of my 14 yo daughter's information that is objectionable?

OTOH, what makes you think you can control your 14 yo daughter...

Any information (especially personal information) in the hands of the enemy is a bad thing, IMHO. And anyone thinking that China is not the enemy at this point is deluding themselves.

Good parenting perhaps.....

Those who control the youth.... Control the future

Is there another US owned option to "Tik Tok"? If not I'm guessing there soon will be.

This video outlines the data they are collecting. (A lot more than you'd think)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j90_R-kYM8M" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

OMG!
TikTok surveillance knows what kind of Hot Wheels or Barbie the kid wants!
This is a matter of national security!

The problem will be when these kids start working and have these apps on their work devices. If companies haven't already banned Tik Tok from their devices, they will do so soon. And a lot of kids, by then young adults, and probably largely working from home, will think it's no big deal until they get fired. The biggest chat app in Europe is WhatsApp and it's banned by most companies now. And most of its users are already adults. The GDPR law has enormous fines for data privacy violations.

OMG!
TikTok surveillance knows what kind of golf clubs or purse the 20s office worker is browsing for!
This is a matter of national security!

OMG! It tracks chat logs?
TikTok knows that Julie is jealous of Wendy's boyfriend!!
This is a matter of national security!

OMG! It tracks location data?
TikTok knows that James went to the gym and then Chipotle's after that!!
This is a matter of national security!

The fact tiktok is telling the kids how to fight the parents on how to keep the app....
Brainwashing... Propaganda... In a nice two syllable. Catchy name.

Wolf in plane clothes.

With all the data we put out there using our phones, Tik Tok is no more of an issue than Google, facebook or any of the other major players, I reckon.
Tik Tok most likely isn’t China’s first, primary nor only way of gathering info/intel about you and everybody else. So why is this different?