"The deal launched a frenzy among its US-based users over possible censorship, with some accusing it of taking down footage of ICE agents or restricting searches for words, such as "Epstein." While TikTok denied these claims, pointing to a " data center power outage," the app also changed its privacy policy at the time - now allowing it to collect more detailed data on its users, including their precise locations."
"As The New Republic argues, TikTok's deal means that agents at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose deportation efforts have been supercharged under the Trump administration, could skip tedious court-ordered data requests and monitor users by buying their data from private data brokers that obtain the info from TikTok directly - a "highly ironic" development, the magazine writes, considering the ByteDance deal was motivated in the first place by fears over Chinese state-sponsored surveillance."
TikTok finalized a deal with investors including Oracle to address pressure for ByteDance to divest or face a U.S. ban. The deal and simultaneous privacy policy changes sparked user fears of censorship and increased data collection, including precise location tracking. Users' Mobile Advertising ID can broadcast exact GPS coordinates to data brokers, enabling agencies like DHS or ICE to acquire user data without court processes. ICE could use purchased data to build probabilistic confidence scores and monitor protesters or observers. Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison has linked AI and mass surveillance to citizen behavior. ICE already uses Palantir’s ELITE app to inform agents.
Read at Futurism
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