U.S. government declared Tik Tok a security threat.

Government has declared tiktok a threat

Beyond initial paranoia, let’s be realistic about what apps collect. Even Google collects IP (and therefore geographic location), and other pieces of personal data:Google records every search you perform and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210505211252/https://www.cnet.com/news/mozilla-is-sharing-youtube-horror-stories-to-prod-google-for-more-transparency/">every YouTube video you watch </a>. Whether you have an iPhone or an Android, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210505211341/https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-slow-google-sensorvault-from-tracking-your-location-on-ios-android/">Google Maps logs everywhere you go </a>, the route you use to get there and how long you stay — even if you never open the app.So then what are we looking for? How is this different? For one thing, Google, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter apps don’t collect anywhere near the same amount of data that TikTok does.

Is tiktok any different from Google 

<ul><li>Location (once Every 30 seconds for some variants of the app…)</li><li>Phone Calls</li><li>Screenshots</li><li>Network Information (Wifi Networks’ SSID, MAC address, Carrier, Network Type, IMSI (possible), IMEI, local IPs, other devices on the network…)</li><li>Facial Data</li><li>Address</li><li>Clipboard</li><li>Phone Data (cpu, hardware ids, screen dimensions, dpi, memory usage, disk space, etc)</li><li>Installed Apps</li><li>Rooted/Jailbroken Status</li></ul>

Things tiktok collects

TikTok requires you to provide a phone number upon signup on most occasions to function normally within the app, so they can link your identity to your phone number. They also collect your call log (people you’ve called) and have the permission to make calls from your device, although I’ve never heard of a case of this happening. Phone numbers are generally very unique, so this combined with location and name would already be enough to identify virtually anyone using this app in the U.S.

Phone Calls/Call Log/Phone Number

So, social media or spyware? Why not both? I’m probably going to continue to use the app, but I’ll be sure not to say <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210506015317/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-winnie-the-pooh-film-to-stop-comparisons-to-president-xi">Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the Pooh </a>or mention the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_Gong_practitioners_in_China">Falun Gong genocide </a>. At least, not while TikTok is watching.

🤔 

Informs users about the amount of data tiktok collects 

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

cybersecurity

Cybersecurity

TikTok: Social Media, or Spyware?

Link rot is a problem that affects everyone using the internet on a daily basis. This is when <a href="https://gmr.dev/notarealplace">a link becomes dead and no longer links to where it’s supposed to </a>because of site changes. Either the owner stopped maintaining and paying for the domain/hosting, the structure changed, or it was deleted or inaccessible for another reason. Nothing is permanent online (unless it’s your ad data

Link rot is affecting the entire internet

The problem can be combated by using <a href="https://web.archive.org/">web archivers </a>, and linking to primary, trusted sources as much as possible. Additionally, it’s helpful to copy + paste the information that’s relevant from the site you’re sharing/linking in case it dies somehow later on.

Save everything 

The advent of ‘online-only’ services have marked a period full of slow, buggy, overly designed applications, such as Creative Cloud or Epic Games, that run at all times on your computer to feed you advertisements or update notifications. <a href="https://gmr.dev/blog/2019/02/16/the-problems-with-unitys-business-model/">Engines like Unity </a>have transitioned more and more of their editor services and features to online services. Even Deepstash will eventually be removed.

Everything is an online only service, even this app Deepstash

I've began saving mostly everything in offline cold storage if it's important to me as more and more online sites are inaccessible 

computerscience

Computer Science

Nothing is permanent… especially on the Internet

It’s easy to write bad, unorganized code, but it’s hard to maintain such code. Good code typically follows some standard for naming conventions, formatting, etc. Such standards are nice because they make things deterministic to those who read your code afterwards, including yourself. Use something like ﻿StyleCop ﻿to practice good habits.

1. Use a Coding Standard

Comments are crucial. You won’t appreciate them until you leave your thousand-line script for a couple of days and return to and try and make sense of it. ﻿Anyone who can read code knows WHAT the code is doing. Explain ﻿WHY ﻿you've done it this way. ﻿

2. Write Useful Comments

Global variables and loops are a mess and can prove problematic when your application grows to millions of lines of code (which most do!). They may influence code elsewhere that is difficult to discern, or cause noisy naming clashes. Think twice before you pollute the global namespace with variables, functions, loops, etc. ﻿ALWAYS USE NAMESPACES.

3. Avoid Global Code

Never use names like <code>$k </code>, <code>$m </code>, and <code>$test </code>for your variables. How do expect to read such code in the future? Good code should be meaningful in terms of variable names, function/method names, and class names. Some good examples of meaningful names are: <code>$request </code>, <code>$dbResult </code>, and <code>$tempFile </code>(depending on your coding style guidelines these may use underscores, camelCase, or PascalCase).

4. Use Meaningful Names

Managing changes and revisions should be easy but effective, so pick whatever version control software that will work best with the workflow of your development team. I prefer using a distributed version control tool like Git or Mercurial; both are free software/open source and very powerful.

5. Use Version Control Software

Try to use tools like Ant or Phing to get your source prepared, compressed, and deployed. Building your whole application with a single command is a marvelous way to prevent errors and omissions that are inherent when performing repetitive tasks.

6. Use Automated Build Tools

For large applications spanning several classes and namespaces, you should have automatically generated API documentation. This is very useful and keeps the development team aware of “what’s what.” And if you work on several projects at the same time, you will find such documentation a blessing since you may forget about structures switching back and forth between projects.

7. Use Code Documenters

It's easy to overlook writing tests for a simple application, but as they grow in size it becomes increasingly important to be sure a change in one location after a time doesn't break something. Having tests makes sure the specific process you're testing always stays functional as intended.

8. Write tests

Writing code can sometimes be the most difficult part of any software development process. In this article,we'll discuss 10 tips for better coding.

10 Tips for Better Coding

If we procrastinate over a long period of time, we can become demotivated and disillusioned with our work, which can lead to depression and even job loss, in extreme cases.

Cons

<ul><li>﻿95% ﻿of all people procrastinate. </li><li>We all have to deal with it to some degree </li></ul>

You are not alone

Procrastination is an active process – you choose to do something else instead of the task that you know you should be doing. In contrast, laziness suggests apathy, inactivity and an unwillingness to act.

You are NOT lazy

You need to understand the reasons why you are procrastinating before you can begin to tackle it. Motivation is a formula.

Derive the problem

Surprisingly, perfectionists  are often procrastinators. Often, they'd rather avoid doing a task that they don't feel they have the skills to do, than do it imperfectly. ﻿Allow the world to be imperfect. Some is better than none, always.

Perfectionists: allow yourself to be okay with imperfections 

<ul><li>Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past. Studies show that self-forgiveness can help you to feel more positive about yourself and reduce the likelihood of procrastination in the future.</li><li>Commit to the task. Focus on doing, not avoiding . Write down the tasks that you need to complete, and specify a time for doing them. This will help you to proactively tackle your work.</li><li> You</li></ul>

Focus on the problem

Most of the time when people procrastinate because it's something they don't want to do themselves. Align yourself with the task and the end result and make sure that you want it

Make sure you want it

Procrastination can damage your potential, your career, and your mood. Use these strategies to overcome it and take back control of your day!

TikTok: Social Media, or Spyware?

Nothing is permanent… especially on the Internet

10 Tips for Better Coding

How Can I Stop Procrastinating?: Overcoming the Habit of Delaying Important Tasks

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