this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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[–] zephyreks@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Literally the entire PRISM operation? It gathered internet traffic from all major US tech companies and could pretty much access any data those companies had on you.

The US can't really force a foreign entity to comply, so this is the next best thing. If anything, it means that TikTok's systems are so robust that US alphabet agencies haven't found an easy way in yet.

[–] mo_ztt@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Literally the entire PRISM operation? It gathered internet traffic from all major US tech companies and could pretty much access any data those companies had on you.

So, I just looked this up. I honestly had some of the details of it wrong in my memory (I remembered it as pretty much only backbone packet eavesdropping, with FISA warrants for a company's internal data as a separate thing, but Snowden describes those two things as working hand in hand under PRISM which I guess makes sense.)

Are you saying that TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc. is currently exempt from FISA warrants? If a FISA court issues a legally binding request to USDS for internal data, USDS tells them to get lost? If that's what you're saying, which part of these proposed regulations is going to change that?

That's what keeps blowing my mind about this -- the US loves doing surveillance on people's internet stuff, I'll agree with you 100% on that, and that that's in general a bad thing. But, as far as I can tell, opposing these particular regulations because you're opposed to the US doing that genuinely just makes no sense.

If you said that Project Texas was a cover for US surveillance, that would actually make some sense, since that was what put US Tiktok operations physically and corporate-structure-wise more within the US hence subject to US courts and physical spying. But that already happened. Forbes is writing this article pretending that now that they've seen the new regulations, they're a shocking overreach expanding US surveillance, and I honestly just don't see anything in the new regulations that would justify that statement.

Let me ask something else: Are all these countries also singling out Tiktok for this same type of treatment out of this same desire to surveil Tiktok users?

[–] zephyreks@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

None of those countries have negotiated with TikTok for a plan of operations: they've been following guidelines shared by US intelligence... Are you at all surprised by their behaviour?

[–] mo_ztt@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Are you saying that TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc. is currently exempt from FISA warrants? If a FISA court issues a legally binding request to USDS for internal data, USDS tells them to get lost? If that’s what you’re saying, which part of these proposed regulations is going to change that?