The danger is that the Chinese government could manipulate “the algorithm” that chooses what videos are seen, to emphasize messaging desired by the government, based on what TikTok thinks it knows about its users. Source: US TikTok User Data Has Been Repeatedly Accessed From China, Leaked Audio Shows
Experts say some hospitals’ use of an ad tracking tool may violate a federal law protecting health information Source: Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites – The Markup
Government has used third-party services to track the locations of all smart phones in a given area. This is made possible by apps that collect location data (but may not make this clear to users) and sell it to data brokers. Data brokers, in turn, have then provided this information to the police and other government agencies, and the example here, gave it to public health authorities. Your smart phone is a literal 24×7 surveillance device to track you in real time.
I have a post appearing in my news feed right now, asking: “You have 30 minutes to spend $10,000 in one store. Where are you going?” Or, “What was your first car?” On the surface, these are boring questions, yet FB indicates it has had 1.8 million comments added. Why are these posts occurring and who is behind them? Someone appears to be pouring enormous energy and effort into a data collection project aimed at building personality profiles from social…
Australian law gives government the authority to not only intercept but also to “add, copy or delete data” when investigating crimes. Thereby tampering with evidence, as well as scooping up (and potentially altering) data of third parties that are not the direct target.
According to the NY Times “Unfettered conversations” are taking place on a new cloud-based app. Is the NY Times suggesting all conversations should be monitored by the secret police or their proxies, the tech companies? This seems bizarre.
Instagram introduced new Terms of Service, which caused many of us to re-read them, as well as the various linked policies. Facebook/Instagram log everything about you – including your SMS messages, your address book, information about nearby Wi-Fi access points, other devices on your network – and can integrate FB’s own collection with offline purchases at retail stores.
I had deleted the FB app long ago and last night I deleted the Instagram app. I do not believe it is safe to use any Facebook company application.
This was inevitable. I have some security cameras that can link to the web. I turned them off whenever we are home precisely because of this. The cloud cannot be trusted. Source: Singapore home cams hacked and stolen footage sold on pornographic sites | The New Paper
Twitter’s hack into its administrative tools reveals the potential power of social media to destroy life on earth. Imagine if they hacked Trump’s account and posted things even more insane than Trump would post.
Facebook had another oopsie, letting 5,000 app developers continue to have access to user data they should not have had access to.