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by cld8483 1212 days ago
This app should have been banned from both appstores when it was found to be exfiltrating all clipboard data. Insane that it's still permitted by Apple and Google after such an obvious display of malevolence.
4 comments

Who cares? Does China allow Facebook, Twitter etc within its own borders? Why not?

Is there anything unreasonable about treating China the same way it treats others?

No, just the hypocrisy of "we're doing it out of privacy concerns"
Not at all.

Privacy concerns obviously become much more critical when an aggressive foreign power is involved and is likely to weaponise the data. Particularly a country like China that operates the most sophisticated control/surveillance systems in the world on its own citizens.

The only issue here is targeting Tiktok and other gaints like Facebook and Twitter are given free pass. I don't like baptist vs bootleggers strategy.
Yes I wonder what could be motivating Tim Cook for example?

https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-tim-cook-275-billion-c...

What other explanation is there for this other than some type of china-USA (or global) conspiracy?

I suppose it’s the threat of TikTok paving the way for non App Store deployments. Reducing power of the app stores.

Or maybe it’s US companies believing they can use permission systems to tame the information flow to TikTok servers.

>What other explanation is there for this other than some type of china-USA (or global) conspiracy?

Perhaps the fact that every other major social company has been found of doing the same (Facebook and Google multiple times) and yet nothing happened to their apps, at best they got a "slap on the wrist" at times...

The focus on Tik-Tok is more about a shot in the US-China trade and geopolitical rivarly than because it's somehow unique

For me the geopolitics are a lot more adversarial than that. For ex can't use FB or Google in China why - its American espionage against Chinese citizens. The question is why America (via Apple/Google) are allowing TikTok to spy on American citizens.