Bitcoin Forum

I have seen many posts in which members are selling or searching for accounts, likes, etc. for TikTok, so I thought it will be wise to warn the forum about this SPYWARE.

https://blog.zimperium.com/zimperium-analyzes-tiktoks-security-and-privacy-risks/

India already banned TikTok and urged users to delete the app immediately.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/07/04/tiktok-loses-6-billion-as-users-urged-delete-app-immediately/#34a04d7e1c98

Of course, now everybody wonders what is so worrying about the TokTok app that it becomes banned and even called national security?

Here are the reasons:


Here a video from YouTube showing - TikTok app in action spying on user device.

https://i.imgur.com/EPiq7jk.png
https://youtu.be/l_fVbuXLaAA

The origins of TikTok suggest that the Chinese government is involved and this is the best way for them to be the next Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in one.

TikTok CEO, Kevin Mayer, denied that the app was spying on their users and assured the Indian government: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/07/04/tiktok-loses-6-billion-as-users-urged-delete-app-immediately/#1ff606be1c98

Of course, the Chinese government has never made such a request because for sure they have the keys to TikTok kingdom, there is just no other way to build such an application in China, without the government's full involvement and control. Just like Facebook and they are from the USA  ;) :D.

So, I'll leave the assessment to you. For me, it is really scary that they can do literally anything with your device and I definitely recommend removing TikTok ASAP!!!

A few more worth to read articles about TikTok:

---

Source
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg54735071#msg54735071
https://blog.zimperium.com/zimperium-analyzes-tiktoks-security-and-privacy-risks/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/07/04/tiktok-loses-6-billion-as-users-urged-delete-app-immediately/#1ff606be1c98

Not really a fan of TikTok but the rising concern coming from different parts of the world must speak a certain amount of truth.

I noticed that China has been regularly attached to these apps which are said to be spying on their users. Just a month or two ago the app Zoom was also banned by several countries and companies for being a spy app. Not to mention that the China telecommunication giant Huawei was also banned by certain countries for spying for China.

I have never use this app, don't even have it on my device but I have been reading from different source now how this app could be a Spyware and possibly collect personal information of users,
There is a growing concern now about this app, I think I will have to warn family and friends who use it to be aware of the dangers of continue using it,   between shouldn't Google and Apple already remove it from the app store as well! Or the they don't seem to believe the report about tik tok being a Spyware?

I have all my family members downloading this apps on their phone and enjoying it, Lol. But lately, I was surprised to find out that they are no longer using so I ask, and then say it is sort of a spyware just like what the OP is telling.

Most of them are Iphone users, so no-no for them. This apps really took the world by storm, and not only TikTok but there are a lot of apps out there that we need to be very careful, crypto or non-crypto related. We really don't know what's those close apps are doing in our mobile, could be really malicious as what this TikTok is doing until they are finally exposed.

This behavior has been reported in my country recently. I doubt that the Chinese only created an app for entertainment. There are many more behind this app which we don't understand yet. We are living in the data industry and each of the collected data is extremely valuable not for a company itself but also for their government. And who knows what they gonna do with our information? No matter how good China is, I always consider them as a scammer who always tries to deceive the world

Therefore, my advice is to delete all the programs created by Chinese companies which located in China, especially TIKTOK . Don't let them obtain your private information and data.

Thank you so much for the report OP. Many people here will be more aware of this app

As much as I'd always advise anyone against installing any software created by a Chinese corporation, the news about TikTok come primarily from a Reddit comment. India must have surely banned it for political reasons and that's not proof that it's spyware.

Surely don't install TikTok and advise your friends against using it too. By all means, The Chinese communist party does probably have control over it as they do over any company's decisions. But it's not exactly been proven that the app is spyware. That would need some more extensive studying.

I have never installed this app and it's not my thing but I have a question on my mind now.

What would be the girls thinking right now after knowing this?

Those girls that tried the invisible challenge.

Naturally, as human, people want to have something fun, convenient and easy to use and enjoy their lives. They are not aware of risks behind applications on their mobile devices. When threats are found or holes are compromised, they will get losses. Terribly, it is one-way and irreverisble journey .

I don't trade on mobile apps because another risks. On mobile, you can more easily make mistakes. Our eyes work better on computer screen and key board, not touchpad.

Gladly, my family is not using this app. I think that the company will have a large target to attack because they have a million users who use TikTok apps. I think they still use the apps, even if there is bad news about the apps, and I think they don't care about that. Maybe only a few of them who will stop their activity using that app because they care with their private lives.

Read an article recently which says US also considering about banning tiktok after India did due to national security is at risk.Most of the android applications are just spywares because they literally have every access from users smartphone even if it is not really needed for that app to function.

I think we need to do some kind of changes in the OS itself to ensure user's privacy. ::)

We all use this app and compete with other groups.
For times likes these its good for kids.

Have you read what I have just written? If yes, then I don't understand your comment at all.

It is proven that this is spyware, which can do literally anything with your device and you say that this is just perfect for children for corona times?

For sure, not for mine and I advise everyone to remove it ASAP because it can cause big privacy risks but not only.


Who are we, if you can specify, please?

All? no.

I can firmly say that I have never used this app nor installed it. Good for kids? not anymore. If you have seen my post above, there are teens that have used the invisible challenge which the devs can see their naked bodies thinking that they've been blurred by the app.

Never heard about this and is literally hard to believe that even teenagers can be so naive.

Now they are pumping Doge using TokTok and with success because the price of Dogecoin spiked more as 40% in last 24 hours.

https://i.imgur.com/TtKY65E.png
https://www.coindesk.com/tiktok-let-the-doge-out-why-tiktok-doge-is-everything-about-2020-finance-in-one-story

It is just insane what is happening around this app.

this is good news, thank you for sharing...
since the beginning some internet security experts have already suspected the application from China, many users are not aware that their activities are monitored. hopefully, TikTok must responsible for their actions and hope the application is banned from many countries.

Compared to more mature social media apps, it looks like Tiktok was poorly designed and has way too many vulnerabilities. Do Bytedance engineers even know how to maintain this thing? They bought it with Musical.ly and technical experience of a product is not transferred when you acquire its company.

I don't think Bytedance/Musical.ly specifically designed Tiktok to be spyware considering they aren't advanced enough to fix the very security vulnerabilities that plague it. However, it's possible the Chinese government wants to make it so, but that's unlikely considering they outlawed Tiktok in their own country. They operate a very similar app just in china called Douyin.

I don't see the point of Tiktok when there's already Instagram.

If it wasn't for the iOS 14 update, many wouldn't notice how it spied on them.

On the other hand, we have Big Brother Google spying on us too on a way larger scale  ;D

I heard about it. Interesting information, but this is not surprising. Another popular application with which something is not clean.

However, don't exclude the possibility that this is misinformation in order to mislead people.

They are not aware of the consequences of these challenges they did. They don't know that at the backside of the app there are those developers watching them and probably saving those videos that they've done.

And if those developers go crazy, they could scatter it on the internet.

Im also curious about, what if does video spread.

I never use tiktok app, but i like to watched different videos of it on social media. Some of my friends is using it and i know their are not aware on this news.

Probably they are already aware of it. With the news about TikTok being shared on different social media platforms, they will be worried of it.

The victims can't do anything about it, those people who have the copy of their videos depends on what they have on their mind if they'll copy and spread it but hoping that they will keep it private.

My wife is a big fan of tiktok, she almost uploaded 15 tiktok video a day hahaha. But since she read about the news she sadly stop doing tiktok.

You're right, Hopefully they don't spread does videos of the girls in the invisible challenge. They should be worried by now thinking what if it spread. I couldn't go out if that happens to me.

I think people who use TikTok will still use that app because maybe they don't hear about the news, so they are not worried. But if they know about that, I think they will stop using that app, and they will move to another app. Once TikTok doesn't have a big fan, the apps will reduce the popularity and lose the chance to get more members.

Good riddance.

As far as I can see, many are stopping and uninstalling it.

But can't blame those influencers that became popular on TikTok and uses it as their career now.

Those who are interested in sharing everything about them to China will certainly continue using it. If they stop now it does not matter because China already has your data.

The best way to find out whether TIK TOK is capturing your data or not is just by installing a VPN on your mobile. After VPN is installed TIK TOK still will deliver videos from your own country and not from VPN countries.

Installing VPN won't change anything, personally I have tried this but the same kind of videos are showing to me.SO they are collecting our data and create dedicated database for every users and this is almost likely happen with most of the social media.But the real question is Tiktok really keeping all these data with them or they are sharing with China for political purposes.

TikTok exploits the millennial mindset, in this regard it did a good job. But does it end with TikTok? No it doesn't.

All these social media apps are a type of trojan, some data mine you, some outright spy you and some do more...

If the app you use isn't Free and Open Source software, you are getting spied one way or another.

So it is bad if the Chinese gov spies but A OK if the US gov spies? No. Guess what the American apps do? Yes they do it. As long as your program is not Free and Open Source software, it may spy you and you have no way of telling.

Even operating systems like Windows are doing it it, but people don't care. Microsoft even pulls thumbnails of all your pictures, yet people keep using it. The millennials want to "share it all", they want to have fun... Big brother is happy and there is money to be made, thinks Zuckerberg, et al.

Do you have something to hide, citizen?

The user of TikTok will still use the apps because many of them search for the fun to share their life to the public. But I don't think that most members of TikTok will know about VPN because I think they share everything about their life. After all, they see what other people did. I hope that all people who access the internet will know that they can be the next target of a crime if they are not caring for what they do.

you mean Google has left the chat :)

Oh, Google is way larger than Microsoft. And it's integrated in our phones ;D

Except Apple of course. But still, chances are that those iPhone owners have registered for Google at some point.

i have watched in CNN even before pandemic about this issue that the very Famous apps are being used by Chinese government to spy the whole world.

But there are also arguments about How does Apple company also being used by the US government to spy the world as well.

There are always argument but do these countries will admit their paticipations?

We don't know. But once caught, they can deny or admit their participation. I think we're all aware that almost product that we use gathers our data and store it into their databases and use it for their purposes.

It's just TikTok gather the most attention because of its popularity and it's for entertainment. While the other products that we use are becoming part of our lives. Well, it's kind of hard to explain.

Honestly speaking, if it wasn't for data mining or spying, our lives wouldn't be so easy as they are right now.

For example, YouTube's video and channel recommendation, Twitter's trending posts, what's new, stuffs in your browsing history. We can talk about security concerns and whatnot, but without the convenience of all these tech, we'd still be frustrated in finding what we really want. Using the YouTube above for example, if I were to browse cooking videos frequently, I'd love to see different cooking channels on my feed instead of manually searching for them among other genres.

Having to choose between a megacorp and a threat actor to access our data, I think many, if not all would go for the former because of the trust factor.

Not true, there is Telegram for years and many other encrypted open-source programs like Truecrypt which you can use to safely and anonymously communicate online and store files on your computers or in the cloud. Nobody is forced to use Facebook, Gmail, TikTok, or any other website or app which is known that has privacy issues.

Of course, young people don't value anything and privacy is their smallest concern at this time in their lives but believe me, many of them will be sorry when 10 years later somebody will download and show their naked pictures on a job interview. Thas is why we should everybody and spread the word about privacy risks to make people aware and influence their mindset a little.

I just hope that finally everybody understands that our privacy is at risk online and we have to do all that possible to protect it.

Yeah, thank you pointing about Telegram.

Those bold words are for real. I hope that the younger generation will value their privacy and data that they have been sharing online. You know that in this generation, everybody wouldn't care to the app that they use although we need some of those apps for different purposes. But to the extent of those challenges to show naked bodies, they have to be mindful of that.

Every social media app is spyware. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble ;D

Maybe the location will be tracked and it happens with Android as well but here apple holds the data where as in Tiktok they hold the data in China only even though they says most of the data has been stored in local servers only.So it is clear that Tiktok is spying the users so deeply and also their guidelines and kind of promotion in the for you page will never let anyone to know about if something bad about China has been posted or even it gets deleted.

i'm extremely suspicious and never trust all those new apps... basically i just use my phone for calling

Thank you very much for this discussion we had here and all posts published.

I think we have already exhausted the topic and its main reason, a warning about TikTok, was sent and now is the best time to close it.

I have seen better and worse posts published, but there was no spam, I am very happy because of this and want that this thread stay like this.

Thanks one more time for your contribution Bitcointalk memebers, I hope we will talk in another thread soon.