US Army bans TikTok App from being used on Army-issued devices citing security risk

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...ing-growing-concern-about-apps-chinese-roots/

Tik Tok will be under scrutiny in 2020 for data collection issues and and the US Army has banned Tik Tok over user data of Army Personnel going to China in a data breach.

If you are wondering who Tik Tok is its a social media outlet based in China and its demos are between 16-24 as of 2020.

The U.S. Army has banned the use of the popular video app TikTok on government-issued phones, following guidance from the Pentagon and highlighting growing tensions over the app’s Beijing-based parent firm.

Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Robin Ochoa told Military.com in an interview released this week that the app was “considered a cyber threat” and not allowed on government-issued devices. Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Crystal X. Boring told The Washington Post on Tuesday that the service branch was adhering to directions from the Defense Department, which flagged the app for “potential security risks.”

The measure follows a similar ban from the U.S. Navy and a “cyber awareness” message earlier in December from the Defense Department that urged the Pentagon’s roughly 23,000 employees to uninstall the app because it could potentially expose personal data to “unwanted actors.”

A Pentagon spokesperson, who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the issue, said the threat is related to potential loss of personally identifiable information but would not provide further detail. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics

Here is Tik Tok's Demos

TikTok has really hit the nail on the head when it comes to engaging with the youngsters of the world. It might be a bit of a head scratcher for the older generations, but TikTok is no news to the teens of the world. 41 percent of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24 (Globalwebindex, 2019).

The social media app is all the hype among youngsters, but many adult social media users have never heard of it and you might be wondering why. Simply put — it’s by design. To start off, the popularity of TikTok with the younger generation could be explained by the fact that the app creators decided to choose under 18 as their target audience from the very beginning. In a way, you can say that TikTok creators have understood the younger generation in a better way than competitor apps. With their target audience specified from the start, they’ve understood the habits and preferences of this age group which has led them to create a social media app that gives their audience exactly what they’re looking for. TikTok allows users to create and share funny videos while singing, dancing, or lip-syncing to their favorite tunes. It allows the younger crowd to express themselves in a creative way, whether that’s by dancing, singing, or doing some form of comedy. If you think of it this way, it’s no surprise why it has generated so much hype among the teens of the world.

Yes this outlet is like myspace in the mid 2000's, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and reddit were in the 2010's and now Tik Tok.

Expect this outlet Tik Tok to be under scrutiny in the 2020 elections.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...aims-USA-India-requests-access-user-data.html

Here is more on Tik Tok and expect more from this company to be in the headlines.

TikTok is blocked in China, but the government would be entitled to make any requests for data, to further criminal investigations.

Paul Bischoff, a privacy advocate at Comparitech.com, told MailOnline: 'TikTok has, on several occasions, removed content and banned accounts of users critical of the Chinese government.

'The transparency report is disingenuous. The US and India top the list because they went through official channels to have content removed or to get information about users.

'Just because TikTok says it didn't receive any such requests from Chinese authorities doesn't mean it isn't censoring content and users on China's behalf.

'It would be very naive to assume TikTok, a Chinese-owned entity, is beyond China's influence.'

Its inaugural transparency report details requests from nations around the world requesting various things, including removal of content which breaches local laws.

US-based law enforcement agencies made 79 requests between January 1 and June 30, for user data access, including six requests for content removal. Most of these (86 per cent) were approved by TikTok.

India topped the list with 107 total requests.

The United Kingdom and Australia only made six and five requests, respectively. None of these were granted by TikTok.

The video-sharing app exploded on the scene in 2019 and its popularity was only matched by the amount of scandals it became embroiled in.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.tmz.com/2020/01/02/tiktok-blocked-banned-marine-corps-army-security-threat/

Update Tik Tok has been Banned by the Marines too over data collection concerns of active personnel and their families going to China.

The United States Marine Corps is taking action against an emerging threat from China ... by keeping its wildly popular app, TikTok, away from Marines.

If you didn't know ... both the Army and Navy have banned soldiers from using the Chinese-owned video-sharing service on government phones because it's been deemed a cybersecurity threat by officials.

The Marines are following suit, TMZ has learned, for the same reason. Capt. Hector Alejandro of the Marine Forces Cyberspace Command tells us TikTok has also been blocked from its government-issued mobile devices.

He adds ... "This decision is consistent with our efforts to proactively address existing and emerging threats as we secure and defend our network."

The crux of the issue -- TikTok's Chinese ownership has politicians and military officials concerned that it could be used to gather intelligence on Americans.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/04/us/tiktok-pentagon-military-ban.html

Now the Pentagon has made an announcement that Tik Tok app has been banned from all branches of the Military as of today.

The warning from the Pentagon was unequivocal: Military personnel should delete TikTok from all smartphones.

Now, a number of United States military branches are heeding that advice, issued last month by the Defense Department, and have banned the popular Chinese-owned social media app on government-issued smartphones.

Some have even strongly discouraged members of the armed forces from keeping TikTok on their personal electronic devices.

The vigilance coincides with heightened scrutiny of the short-form video-sharing platform by Congress and a national security review of TikTok, which is among the top downloaded smartphone apps worldwide.

“Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command has blocked TikTok from government-issued mobile devices,” Capt. Christopher Harrison, a United States Marine Corps spokesman, said Friday in an email. “This decision is consistent with our efforts to proactively address existing and emerging threats as we secure and defend our network. This block only applies to government-issued mobile devices.”

In a Dec. 16 message to the various military branches, the Pentagon said there was a “potential risk associated with using the TikTok app,” and it advised employees to take several precautions to safeguard their personal information. It said the easiest solution to prevent “unwanted actors” from getting access to that information was to remove the app.

 

[landtuna]

The Chinese are in for a huge disappointment if they think tapping into the 16-24 age group is going to give them useful information.

It will probably send them into re-education wondering what the hell is this weird form of English these people use.

 

[TheBigA]

The problem is while the ban only applies to government devices, the information would still be available from personal devices. Such as tracking information, to locate where US soldiers are located at any point in time. The other issue has to do with the microphone in the device and what it could pick up and transmit. I remember reading that Osama Bin Laden was very careful about these devices for those reasons. And he still got caught.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://abc3340.com/news/local/what-parents-need-to-know-about-a-popular-social-media-app-tick-tok

Here is another issue it's about Tik Tok's PR people talking about storing users data in the U.S. Umm I wonder how Tik Tok's leaders are going to prove that they will not face the same issues that Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Reddit are facing over data breaches, privacy concerns and fake news allegations? We do not know how true these statements are until after the 2020 elections here in the USA.

 

[Will_H_69_9]

yes, it's a moot point now, the US is heading into what could be World War 3 in Iran where the Chinese and Russians and North Koreans could ally with Iran and American enemies, so therefore all social media right now is too risky for our active troops to be on.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok...-free-that-could-be-tough-in-2020-11578225601

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/04/investing/tiktok-app-bytedance-political-ads/index.html


https://www.dazeddigital.com/politi...memes-boris-johnson-jeremy-corbyn-tory-labour

Here is another set of issues Tik Tok markets itself for wanting to be politics free but the reality here is that they will have to confront the political content of its users once primaries, conventions and elections take place.


https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/otilliasteadman/world-war-memes-tiktok-trump-iran-draft-jokes



Now Tik Tok has to deal with its users posting political content and conspiracy theories in regards to Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani along with other social media outlets and a possible war.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...tiktok-in-tamil-nadu/articleshow/67971740.cms

This is not the first time that Tik Tok has faced backlash in a congressional hearing. In 2019 there was a hearing in India over questionable content from Tik Tok's users.

The Tamil Nadu government will initiate a dialogue with the Centre on banning Chinese media-sharing platform Tik-Tok in view of its application to circulate extreme content, particularly among a younger demographic of netizens, state IT minister M Manigandan told the state Assembly on Tuesday.

The debate in the Assembly was initiated by Nagapattinam lawmaker Thamimun Ansari, who told ET, “I raised an issue forwarded to me by community welfare workers that the mobile app

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.latimes.com/business/te...nneled-personal-data-to-china-lawsuit-alleges

If you are wondering why the Pentagon has recently decided to ban Tik Tok from Military issued devices is because the military cited this lawsuit from December 2019 where a California resident sued Bytedance and Tik Tok for Privacy violations and data of its users going to China.

A California college student is suing TikTok, alleging that the viral video service run by social media giant ByteDance Inc. secretly funneled her personal information to China while using her videos to create an online profile for targeted ads.

The lawsuit, filed last week in the Northern District of California by a Palo Alto resident, alleges that Culver City-based TikTok harvested her videos, gathered personally identifiable information and then transferred that information to servers in China, ByteDance’s home country. TikTok did so without her consent, her lawyers said in a filing that didn’t provide evidence to back up the allegations.

The suit seeks class-action status.

ByteDance, the world’s most valuable start-up, has come under fire in recent months from U.S. politicians as well as its mainly teenage users alike. U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern about the app’s growing popularity. Officials are reviewing whether ByteDance’s $1-billion acquisition of start-up Musical.ly two years ago, which created TikTok, poses a national security risk.

And more recently, TikTok ignited a furor for suspending the account of New Jersey teenager for posting a series of videos that rebuked China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims. The company later restored the account and blamed a “human moderation error.”

A ByteDance representative had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...tiktok-in-tamil-nadu/articleshow/67971740.cms

This is not the first time that Tik Tok has faced backlash in a congressional hearing. In 2019 there was a hearing in India over questionable content from Tik Tok's users.

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2...h-philadelphia-the-ghetto-outrages-community/

https://www.ft.com/content/4c9d7d58-202a-11ea-b8a1-584213ee7b2b

Just expect more controversies to hit Tik Tok for the rest of 2020 from Fake News, Conspiracy theories, Chinese government meddling to data collection and privacy.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://slate.com/technology/2020/01/military-tiktok-ban-strava-genetic-testing.html

Here is more.

Two years later, the Defense Department isn’t taking any chances with apps that could be used against it. In December, it began advising personnel to delete the popular TikTok app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, and several branches of the military have since banned or blocked the app from military-issued devices.

The Defense Department hasn’t specified exactly what prompted the ban or what threat TikTok poses beyond warning employees of a “potential risk associated with using the TikTok app.” But the most likely explanation is that the Pentagon is concerned that the data being collected by the video app is accessible to the Chinese government, given that the parent company is headquartered in Beijing. In late 2019, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, citing similar concerns about the potential for TikTok to be used for espionage, censorship, and foreign influence, decided to initiate a national security review of ByteDance in 2019. Not much about that investigation has been made public, though the New York Times reported that the U.S. government “had evidence of the app sending data to China.”
By making these decisions app by app, service by service, it’s hard to see exactly how the military will keep up with a changing technological landscape.

TikTok responded by insisting that it stores all of the data it collects from its U.S. users in the United States and Singapore and does not operate any data centers within China. More recently, it also published its first transparency report of how many requests for user information it had received from law enforcement authorities around the world during the first half of 2019—India and the United States had issued the most requests (107 and 79, respectively) according to the report, while China had issued zero.

And yet these announcements that TikTok data is kept outside China’s borders and that the Chinese government has not tried to access any TikTok user data are less than comforting. As Sens. Chuck Schumer and Tom Cotton pointed out in an October 2019 letter to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, just because TikTok data is stored outside China’s borders does not mean it is beyond the Chinese government’s reach. “ByteDance is still required to adhere to the laws of China,” they wrote. “There is no legal mechanism for Chinese companies to appeal if they disagree with a request.”

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The company ByteDance is a Delaware Corporation and TikTok is a California Corporation and has offices in Palo Alto, Culver City and Mountain View.

The lawsuit is claiming TikTock did the following:

1. Violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030

2. Violated the California Comprehensive Data Access and Fraud Act, Cal. Pen. C. § 502

3. Violated the Right to Privacy – California Constitution

4. Intrusion upon Seclusion

6. Violated the California Unfair Competition Law, Bus. & Prof. C. §§ 17200 et seq.

7. Violated the California False Advertising Law, Bus. & Prof. C. §§ 17500 et seq.

8. Negligence

9. Restitution / Unjust Enrichment

TikTok wrote in a statement in October in response to the accusations from the United States Government saying, “We take these issues incredibly seriously. We are committed to transparency and accountability in how we support our TikTok users in the US and around the world.”

TikTok further stated, “We store all TikTok US user data in the United States, with backup redundancy in Singapore. Our data centers are located entirely outside of China, and none of our data is subject to Chinese law.”

The class action lawsuit accuses ByteDance of secretly collecting data on users and transferring private data to China.

Schumer tweeted, “It’s (TikTok) owned by a Beijing-based tech company. It’s required to adhere to Chinese law. That means it can be compelled to cooperate with intelligence work controlled by China’s Communist Party.”

https://californiaglobe.com/section...lifornia-against-multi-billion-dollar-tiktok/

Here is all the allegations Tik Tok is facing in the lawsuit.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-still-posting-tiktok-despite-partial-ban-troops-2020-1

https://wkow.com/2020/01/09/experts-tik-tok-app-poses-security-risks/


Here are the initial effects of TikTok ban announced by the Pentagon. The concerns now affect the personnel devices of active members over privacy data collection.

TikTok has been deemed a potential "cyber threat" by every branch of the US military, resulting in its ban from government-issued devices, but that hasn't stopped troops from continuing to use the Chinese-owned meme factory on their personal devices, according to a review conducted by Insider. And according to cybersecurity experts, this continues to pose many of the same security threats that were present when the app was being used on government phones.

In late December, Military.com broke the news that the Army had forbidden the use of the popular social network on government phones over fears that the Beijing-owned platform posed a security risk after a call for an investigation into the app from Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

Concerns have stemmed from the ownership by Chinese company ByteDance, given potentially divergent international interests, and how the company handles its userbase's data. As recently as January 8, a now-patched security flaw was revealed by Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point. The flaw reportedly allowed hackers to access TikTok users' personal information and make changes to content they post to the platform.

Spies could use meta-data from these videos to track the movements of US personnel, potentially exposing a secret mission or endangering the lives of deployed troops. And phone hacking could expose their personal finances, relationships or any sexting in a way that makes them susceptible to blackmail.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.theverge.com/interface/...tok-bytedance-sale-headquarters-army-navy-ban

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-to-weigh-tiktok-stake-sale-over-u-s-concerns


In another case involving Tik Tok there are rumors that the company could go to other investors. These articles only show of talks as of posting.

ByteDance has considered selling a chunk of TikTok if necessary to protect the value of the business, the people said. The most likely sale scenario would be for the company to sell a majority stake to financial investors, one person said. Earlier investors include SoftBank Group Corp., Sequoia Capital and Susquehanna International Group.

Talks about TikTok’s future are preliminary and no formal decision has been made, the people said. A representative for the company said there have been no discussions about any partial or full sale of TikTok. “These rumors are completely meritless,” the representative said.

ByteDance has emerged as the world’s most valuable startup on the explosive popularity of TikTok, where more than a billion, largely young, users share short clips of lip-syncing and dance videos. But with escalating tensions between China and the U.S., American politicians have warned the app represents a national security threat and urged an investigation. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., better known as CFIUS, has begun a review of ByteDance’s 2017 purchase of the business that became TikTok, Bloomberg News reported in November.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...ng-clear-up-which-videos-it-allows-or-blocks/

Now Tik Tok Responds over content rules

TikTok on Wednesday released a set of new, more detailed rules about the videos it permits and prohibits, seeking to respond to concerns that its policies to protect users failed to keep pace with its meteoric rise in popularity.

The updated guidelines spell out 10 categories of videos that aren’t allowed on the Chinese-owned social media app, including those that glorify terrorism, show illegal drug use, feature violent, graphic or dangerous content or seek to peddle misinformation that’s designed to deceive the public in an election, the company said.

TikTok previously maintained a set of broader community standards that banned a wide range of short-form videos that could cause users harm. But the app’s swift growth spawned questions — in the U.S. Congress and elsewhere — about how exactly the company enforced those vague rules, particularly in the United States, where free speech values differ greatly from the censorship laws that govern TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in China.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ng-chinese-government-ties-idUSKBN20R32K?il=0

More on the congressional look on Tik Tok

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator Josh Hawley said on Wednesday he will introduce legislation banning federal employees from using social media app TikTok on their devices and accused the company of sharing data with the Chinese government.

FILE PHOTO: A 3-D printed figures are seen in front of displayed Tik Tok logo in this picture illustration taken November 7, 2019. Picture taken November 7, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Hawley said the proposed ban would apply to government-issued devices and his comments added to growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade and technology transfers.

“TikTok is scooping up immense amounts of data and they are sharing it with Beijing; they are required to,” Hawley told reporters after a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on big tech’s connections to China.

“For federal employees it really is a no-brainer. It’s a major security risk...do we really want Beijing having geo-location data of all federal employees? Do we really want them having their keystrokes,” he told reporters.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ree-and-childrens-privacy-rules-idUSKBN22Q0E2

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of privacy advocacy organizations is filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday alleging that the popular app TikTok violated a consent decree and a law protecting children’s privacy online.

The Center for Digital Democracy, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and others said TikTok had failed to take down all videos made by children under the age of 13, as it agreed to do under a consent agreement with the FTC announced in February 2019.

TikTok spokeswoman Hilary McQuaide said in response to the new complaint that “we take privacy seriously and are committed to helping ensure that TikTok continues to be a safe and entertaining community for our users.”

As part of the consent agreement, the FTC had said that TikTok, then known as Musical.ly, had known that young children used the app and had failed to get parental consent to collect their names, email addresses and other personal information. It paid a fine of $5.7 million.

But, the privacy advocates said, TikTok failed to delete personal information about users age 12 and younger as it had promised as part of the consent agreement.

Like any other Social Media outlet such as Facebook, Chat Rooms and Twitter these companies are now hit with allegations for violating the internet privacy issues of Children.