Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/06/senate-to-ban-tiktok-on-federa.html
…
2 Likes
Doesn’t this violate the Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 3, which bans bills of attainder?
That was what Huawei argued about their similar ban last year. The US District Courts didn’t agree.
1 Like
Maybe the judicial branch can tell us soon.
2 Likes
To be fair, there are legitimate security and privacy concerns connected with TikTok. Or at least so I read on BoingBoing a few weeks ago. https://boingboing.net/2019/12/14/tiktok-owner-bytedance-launche.html
2 Likes
Indeed. That’s not why the President wants to ban it… he wants to ban it because of the Tulsa rally.
16 Likes
I agree. It just seems odd that suddenly we’ve forgotten that, just a few weeks ago, we were running around and waving our hands in our air about the security threat of TikTok.
1 Like
Both things can be true. This isn’t about the actual security threat posed by tik-tok, it’s about Trump’s ego and nothing more.
13 Likes
Trump Administration labels WeChat and Tiktok ‘threats’ to national security and bans transactions with both
United States president Donald Trump has issued two executive orders banning Chinese messaging service WeChat and made-in-China-but-only-operating-abroad social network TikTok, and labelling the two a “threat”.
Includes links to the EOs and analysis. Quite interesting.
1 Like
2 posts were split to a new topic: How can governments most effectively address the threats that China poses?
Trump meets with Zuckerberg, Trump bans TikTok, Facebook introduces TikTok knockoff all within a few days. I wonder what the quid pro quo on this deal is?
12 Likes
I partially agree, at least we don’t see some unwanted Monty Python reenactments:
1 Like
I mean, yes, the reason for this ban, the whims of a childlike POTUS are terrible, but, you shouldn’t use you work-provided device for personal reasons anyway. The devices should be locked down to prevent any app not authorized by IT to be installed. If you want to access Tik-Tok, WeChat, or even Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit, do it on your personal device.
11 Likes
Agree %100. My IT department blocks many, many apps and sites and I just shrug it off. If I want to go to them, I just log out of my VPN, then log in as another user on my laptop. Problem solved.
Oh, and I think Twitter should be banned on federal devices, too.
6 Likes
Exactly. I think the story here is why gov employees were loading TT onto their mobile devices in the first place.
2 Likes
But this isn’t how things are done these days. Few people have “work provided devices” anymore like they did a decade ago. Instead the trend is “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device) in which work-related apps (such as MobileIron) are installed on the users’ personal devices. Which often are granted draconian permissions such as the ability to wipe the phone if too many wrong passwords are entered into the app.
3 Likes
Also known as ‘buy the company a phone and pay for its service.’ In order to enjoy the expectation of 24x7 availability.
And of course you still need a second phone for your personal stuff, unless you enjoy having some random in the IT department listening in on all your phone calls and sniffing your bank account password.
Mind you, I don’t see anything wrong with a BYOD policy if it’s disclosed before you decide to take the job and you’re compensated accordingly. There are many situations and industries where, for instance, a worker is expected to bring his own tools - and many trades, the workers prefer this, since they can get the hammer whose grip fits their hands, and so on.
In many ways, the real issue is that companies want to nickel-and-dime at both ends. They get away with lying about their prices by attaching hidden fees that are really part of the cost of doing business (ISP’s, phone companies and airlines are the worst at this, but it’s catching on), and with lying about the compensation that they offer employees by attaching hidden conditions (you have to provide your own phone; unpaid overtime and on-call time is exepcted; you can take your vacation time only if you’ve amassed sufficient billable hours; etc.) Moreover, at both ends of the deal, they often get away with adding these conditions of contract on customers (who sometimes lack the recourse even of cancelling service) and employees (often with no consideration other than continued employment).
5 Likes
Honestly, they should, as well as a whole slew of other programs that track you. IIRC people figured out a secret base thanks to fit bit or similar app soldiers used to track their runs etc.
1 Like
It is an obvious security risk.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
