Comment by londons_explore
4 years ago
Was anyone expecting otherwise?
They'll use it to make their algorithm better, and they'll use it to better target ads.
Both of those things are good for me the user, so I'm fine with it.
And for those who don't like that, use a blocker, or don't use TikTok.
I walked into a shop. They place a bug on me, so they can listen to my conversations in the store, and the store next door if I leave and pop in there. Both conversations about products, and conversations about I am having with my therapist about personal problems. Everything is recorded.
They use it to make their algorithm better, and they'll use it to better target ads. Both of these things are good for me the shopper, so I'm fine with it. If they sell that data to other companies, have their employees LOL at my problems, or secretly pass it on to the police or spy agencies, that is totally cool. Nothing to hide here!
And for those who don't like it, don't shop at this particular store.
I like TikTok, I think that algorithm is toxic and that "better" currently means "more toxic". My simple ask is that I wish we could control it a little better. It sends you down a tree, but I wish we could zoom out, visualize the tree and just pick a different branch to go down.
They’re not going to do that because they don’t want you going down a different branch that will lead to lower engagement metrics for them.
The product/feature you're describing will never be implemented in their spyware.
What incentive do they have to satisfy this feature request?
Imagine there was a competitor which did have this feature.
And users appreciated it, and used it to discover more content that they were more interested in.
Preventing that happening would be a good reason to implement it. Don't wait for someone else to implement something users like...
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This was expected and the intention for this invasive spyware is obvious, otherwise, how else is their dystopian recommendation algorithm supposed to work if you don't give access to your entire life records.
The difference is that this was done before by Meta / Facebook and they were fined in the millions, and even by billions by regulators like the FTC over this. This same problems a decade ago are being repeated once again and we have learned nothing.
TikTok should be under the same regulations, especially when they are operating in many countries that have strict data privacy laws and given this unsurprising and extremely invasive data collection practice which is even worse than Facebook, they should be fined in the billions of dollars as a reminder that it applies to any social network, especially those with billions of users.
If left alone, it will only get worse for everyone.
That's great if it's something you want. What happened to getting consent? All of these "features" should be opt-in.