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South Dakota Bans Government Employees From Using TikTok. the Countless Other Apps and Services That
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South Dakota Bans Government Employees From Using TikTok. The Countless Other Apps And Services That Hoover Up And Sell Sensitive Data Are Fine, Though
Overhype [techdirt.com]
from the privacy-theater dept
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem put on a bit of a performance this week by announcing that the state would be banning government employees from installing TikTok on their phones [sd.gov]. The effort, according to the Governor, is supposed to counter the national security risk of TikTok sharing consumer data with the Chinese government:
“South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of nations who hate us,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “The Chinese Communist Party uses information that it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people, and they gather data off the devices that access the platform.”
Of course, this being the post-truth era, the fact that there’s no actual evidence that China has even been able to exploit TikTok to manipulate Americans at any meaningful scale is just… not mentioned.
Fears that Chinese-based TikTok owner ByteDance could share U.S. consumer data with the Chinese government are at least based on reality. But as we’ve noted a few times now, the hyperbolic bloviation by many TikTok hysterics on the right (FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr comes quickly to mind [techdirt.com]) isn’t occurring in good faith, and their solution (ban TikTok) doesn’t address the actual underlying issue.
As in, the policymakers freaking out about the Chinese potentially getting access to TikTok user data are the exact same people [techdirt.com] who’ve fought tooth and nail against the U.S. having even a baseline privacy law for the Internet era. These are the exact same folks that created a data broker privacy hellscape completely free of accountability, and advocated for the dismantling of most, if not all, regulatory oversight of the sector. The result: just an endless parade of scandals, hacks, and breaches.
Now those exact same folks are breathlessly concerned when just one of countless bad actors (China) abuse a zero-accountability privacy hellscape they themselves helped to create.
You could ban TikTok tomorrow nationwide and the Chinese government could simply pivot on a dime and pay any of several dozen dodgy data brokers [techdirt.com] for most of the same data without issue. South Dakota government employees still have dozens of apps and services on their phones collecting an ocean of browsing, clickstream, or location data that then sell it to any nitwit with a nickel. That’s before you get to all the feebly-secured Chinese-based “smart home” hardware [theverge.com] that oddly never warrants anywhere near the same attention.
We created a zero accountability privacy and security hellscape because for decades policymakers prioritized money over security, privacy, or market health. Now the exact same folks that opposed absolutely any competent oversight and guard rails (again, like Brendan Carr) want to singularly fixate on TikTok as the root of all evil — despite they themselves helping to create the problem.
Not only is such hyperventilation hollow and performative, it’s a giant distraction from our failures on consumer protection, adtech accountability, security standards, regulatory oversight, and privacy. It’s your right to believe that TikTok is the root of all evil, but it might be nice if folks hyperventilating took just a few moments to zoom out and realize TikTok is just a tiny part of a much, much bigger problem.
Filed Under: china [techdirt.com], chinese [techdirt.com], chinese surveillance [techdirt.com], kristi noem [techdirt.com], location data [techdirt.com], phones [techdirt.com], privacy [techdirt.com], security [techdirt.com], social media [techdirt.com], south dakota [techdirt.com], wireless [techdirt.com]
Companies: tiktok [techdirt.com]
