Close to half of American adults support a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey that also asked questions about national security concerns and China.

Close to half of American adults favor TikTok ban, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows::Close to half of American adults support a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey that also asked questions about national security concerns and China.

  • galloog1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    It’s not about the propaganda they can push but the data they can harvest with full access to everything your phone can provide. It’s the difference between simple algorithms and full on individuals machine learning models targeting you. Combine that with an actual malicious intent and you get some pretty interesting and terrifying possibilities inside information warfare and kinetic.

    • FlickOfTheBean@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      What are these interesting and terrifying possibilities inside information warfare and kinetic warfare?

      That’s specifically what I’m after. It sounds like boogyman fear right now, but it sounds like you have something more concrete. What is it that you have in mind, exactly?

      • galloog1@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        They could use unmitigated microphone access to develop an exact profile on what would get you to spy for them and betray the country and to what extent. Location based models from minute gps data which can predict exactly where you are to maximize attacks on infrastructure. 3d models of the inside of every federal building and us military bases from direct camera access.

        Combining models can create increasing impacts with automation and cyber capabilities.

        An individual example would be automatic ai generation of images of your family being threatened sent to you while you are at work. All they are asking you to do is go and flush the toilet.

        Everyone does that at the same time and overwhelms the sewage system creating a manufactured infrastructure crisis in Arlington VA around the Pentagon. This multiplied by a hundred issues all at once as they invade Taiwan.

        This is the type of attack that’s only possible with direct access to literally all the data that the little sensor node that is your phone can provide over time. It doesn’t include the types of profiling that they could do with your political inclinations to magnify any discontent with the world around you at the most inconvenient time for the government. It also doesn’t include the possibility that you might be a decision maker for government contracts someday or a politician influencing policy towards China.

        Ever done anything wrong and still had your phone powered on that could possibly be used against you? Are you sure? What if they have enough image data to make a video that looks just like you doing something against your loved ones that they also have profiles on?

        • FlickOfTheBean@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Beautiful, this is what I was looking for.

          I think, still, that the best defense against this type of thing is education. Education on what nefarious actors can do with data types xy and z, and education on how to not get owned by a foreign actor.

          I still think an app ban is principally un-American, but this is the imagination part that I couldn’t come up with that at least gives what I’m still calling republican hysteria a veneer of legitimacy.

          Thank you for that!