WEBVTT

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- Well, it's finally happening.

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The Biden administration just
gave federal agencies 30 days

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to ban TikTok from government devices.

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And apparently it's not just the app.

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The White House says they have
to block all internet traffic

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from reaching the company.

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So mission accomplished, right?

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Well, don't open the champagne just yet

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because you can wipe TikTok
off the face of the Earth

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and there are still a
million other ways that China

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and anyone else can get American data.

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Let's start with TikTok.

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TikTok doesn't just get
data from the TikTok app.

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According to Appfigures,
an analytics company,

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there are over 28,000 apps that use code

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to sync up with TikTok systems.

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Apps do this so they can integrate videos,

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work with TikTok's ad platform,

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and do a host of other
businessy internet things.

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Guess what that means.

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All these apps may be
sending TikTok your data,

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and it's not just apps.

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Websites do the same kind of thing,

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and there are TikTok trackers
all over the internet

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on sites that TikTok doesn't own.

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So if the government wants to
protect itself from TikTok,

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that line about blocking internet traffic

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is gonna have to do a lot of work.

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It's possible if the government is careful

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and comprehensive, but here's the thing.

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That isn't gonna stop China
from getting our data either.

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A 2020 Gizmodo investigation
found that services

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like Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, Gmail, and Snapchat

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all work with Chinese
advertising technology companies.

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That means American
companies are exposing data

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to the exact same national security risks.

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And if you ban Facebook and Google,

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that won't solve the problem either

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because if the Chinese
government wants American data

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they can buy it from one of the hundreds

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of American data brokers,

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companies who make selling data
their entire business model

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with close to zero regulatory oversight.

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None of this is about defending TikTok.

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There are some very
serious privacy concerns

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about the company, and if
there's anyone who knows

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what you can learn from
spying on American user data,

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it's the American government.

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So maybe we should take their
word for it when they say

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there are national security
problems to worry about,

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but a lot of the experts we spoke to

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said the focus on TikTok seems
like it's really about a race

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to be the toughest politician on China.

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If you're really worried about privacy,

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whether it's for national security issues

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or your own personal safety and wellbeing,

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singling out TikTok
just doesn't make sense,

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and banning it isn't gonna
accomplish the things

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that policymakers are promising.

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If the government wants to do something

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to stop all the data
leaking all over the place,

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whether it's China or anywhere else,

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we need to pass comprehensive
privacy legislation.

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Stuff that limits not just
how data is collected,

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but also what you can do
with it and what's allowed

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because singling out individual
companies doesn't make sense

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when the entire system is the problem.

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Check out more videos here on gizmodo.com.