For a long time, TikTok has come under constant scrutiny over the amount of data it captures when installed on a mobile phone. Given it is owned by Chinese based parent company ByteDance, and if you also consider the furore around Huawei being part of the critical 5g infrastructure in the UK, then it surely makes sense to err on the side of caution given China’s reputation when it comes to privacy.
However, with in excess of one billion accounts, the platform has become one of the most used in the world, with it’s users more concerned about the frequency of content being uploaded rather than the security controls that that are supposed to offer the owner of such content. The article below from Sky News is an interesting read.
https://news.sky.com/story/delete-tiktok-or-risk-your-data-being-exposed-to-hostile-threats-warns-foreign-affairs-committee-chief-12803857
The argument concerning privacy relating to social media content is by no means new. If you consider Facebook’s somewhat lacklustre and cavalier approach to information security, then it’s easy to understand the concern with TikTok. However, it seems very much that the concerns around information security are being disregarded in the quest for followers, likes, and a constant need to stand out from the crowd by curating content more “appealing” to a wider audience.
But at what cost? Are we really willing to trade our own souls in terms of security in the search for the social media holy grail, and the need to be popular? As a privacy advocate, I will never quite understand the appeal.
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