This article is republished from The Conversation
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 352-65 on March 13, 2024 to require TikTok's parent company, China-based ByteDance, to sell the app or face a nationwide ban on TikTok. did. President Joe Biden said March 8 that he would sign the bill once it reached his desk.
This popular video social media app has 149 million users in the United States as of January 2024. Many of the users contacted Congress to protest the possible ban.
It is unclear how this bill will fare in the Senate. It is also unclear whether the resulting legislation will survive a court challenge.
On May 17, 2023, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill banning TikTok in the state, making it the first outright ban by a state government in the United States. The law would impose fines of $10,000 per day on the app stores that offer TikTok and on the app makers themselves operating in the state. Individual users are not subject to penalties. The law was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2024, but is pending a trial in which a federal judge will decide whether it overstepped states' authority and whether the law violated the First Amendment. , suspended its entry into force.
The federal government, along with many state and foreign governments and some companies, has already banned TikTok from being used on work-issued cell phones. This type of ban is effective in protecting data related to government operations.
However, whether the app should be completely banned nationally is a different matter and raises many questions, such as what data privacy risks does TikTok pose? What can the Chinese government do with the data collected by the app? Is its content recommendation algorithm dangerous? Is it legal for the government to ban the app outright? Is it possible?
Vacuuming up data
As a cybersecurity researcher, I've observed every few years that newly popular mobile apps raise security, privacy, and data access issues.
Apps collect data for several reasons. In some cases, the data is used to improve the app for users. However, most apps collect data that companies use as part of their operating funds. This revenue is typically earned by targeting users with ads based on the data they collect. The questions raised by the use of this data are: Does the app need all this data? What will it do with it? And how will it protect it from others?
So what makes TikTok different from Pokémon-GO, Facebook, or even mobile phones themselves? Few people read TikTok's privacy policy, but it's a good place to start. Overall, the company isn't particularly transparent about its practices. This document is too long to list all the data collected here. This is a warning.
In addition to the information you provide when creating an account (name, age, username, password, language, email, phone number, social media account information, and profile picture), TikTok's privacy policy covers several areas of interest. be. This information includes location data, clipboard data, contact information, and website tracking, as well as any data you post and messages you send through the app. The company claims that it does not collect GPS information from US users in the current version of the app.
If most apps collect data, why is the government concerned about TikTok? First, there are concerns that the Chinese government has access to the data of 150 million TikTok users in the United States. are doing. There are also concerns about the algorithm TikTok uses to display content.
The data is in the hands of the Chinese government
If the data ends up in the hands of the Chinese government, the question is what it can do with it. The government can profit from sharing information with other companies in China, no different than how American companies share marketing data. The Chinese government is known for playing the long game, and data is power, so even if it is collecting data, it could take years to learn how it benefits China. .
One potential threat is that the Chinese government uses data to monitor people, especially those who have access to valuable information. The Justice Department is investigating TikTok's parent company ByteDance for allegedly using the app to monitor American journalists. The Chinese government has a history of extensive hacking of U.S. government agencies and companies, many of which have been facilitated by social engineering, the practice of using data about people to trick them into revealing more information.
The second issue raised by the US government is algorithmic bias or algorithmic manipulation. TikTok and most social media apps have algorithms designed to learn your interests and adjust content to keep you on the app. TikTok doesn't make its algorithms public, so it's not clear how the app selects users' content.
This algorithm can have biases that influence the population to believe certain things. There are many allegations that TiKTok's algorithm is biased and could be used to reinforce negative beliefs among young users or to influence public opinion. Although the manipulative behavior of algorithms may be unintentional, there are concerns that the Chinese government is using or could use algorithms to influence people.
Can the government ban apps?
A pending Montana law aims to use fines to force companies to comply with the ban. It's unclear whether companies will comply, and this is unlikely to deter users from finding workarounds.
On the other hand, if the federal government decides that TikTok should be banned, could it ban all 149 million existing US users? Such a ban would likely start by blocking the app's distribution through Apple and Google's app stores. This may turn many users away from the platform, but for those who do decide to use the app, there are other ways to download and install the app.
A more drastic method would be to force Apple and Google to change their phones to prevent TikTok from operating. I'm not a lawyer, but I think this effort will fail due to legal issues, including First Amendment concerns. The bottom line is that it is difficult to enforce an absolute ban.
There are also questions about how effective a ban would be, even if it were possible. By some estimates, the Chinese government has already collected the personal information of at least 80% of the U.S. population through various means. So while the ban may limit future damage to some extent, the Chinese government has already collected a significant amount of data. The Chinese government, like other wealthy people, has access to a large market for personal data, prompting calls for stronger data privacy rules.
Are you at risk?
So, should you be concerned as an average user? Again, what kind of data is ByteDance collecting and whether it can harm you personally? is unknown. I believe the most significant risks lie with those in power, whether in politics or within businesses. Their data and information can be used to access other data or compromise the organizations they are associated with.
My biggest concern about TikTok is the algorithm that determines what videos users watch and how that affects vulnerable groups, especially young people. Apart from bans, families should talk about TikTok and other social media platforms and how they can negatively impact mental health. These conversations should focus on how to determine if an app is leading you in an unhealthy direction.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 23, 2023 and updated on May 18, 2023.
Doug Jacobson, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; iowa state university
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
