this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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Privacy

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205
Teen Mental Health App Sent Kids' Data Straight to TikTok (gizmodo.com)
submitted 20 hours ago by Blaze@lemmy.zip to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 28 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Teen Mental Health App Sent Kid's Data Straight to (cue red menace) TikTok

Ahem....

was leaking data about who visited the website to TikTok, Meta, Snap, and other social media companies

I'm no Sinophobe, I do think there's a point to be made about social media data harvesting and mainlining it to ANY government, and that the CCP is definitely not a government I would trust with open access to all my digital doings. That headline is patently fucking ridiculous click-bait fear mongering, there's numerous US politicians on record saying that privacy concerns have nothing to do with their torch and pitchfork agenda re:TikTok, and the line I quoted above is in the first 1-3 paragraphs. The reality is that corporate/government owned social media has only a few uses:

  • mass collection of data for surveillance, profiling individuals for profit or
  • as the ProPublica piece on the NSSF and Cambridge Analytics VoteGun operation highlights, manipulation of people through profiling to push political agendas and tamper with elections

I'll edit this with a link to the article in a few minutes.

Edit: https://www.propublica.org/article/guns-lobbying-cambridge-analytica-nssf-privacy-elections

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 9 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Excellent analysis, the headline buries the real story.

These corporate parasites are using contract law to override actual law and daddy Sam let's them.

If you don't protect yourself, they will take you for a ride folks.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

You feeling ok bud? This is waaaay out of character for you. I've not seen you not shit post....ever!

In seriousness though. We've been shown what they're doing time and again, and they've greased enough palms and swallowed enough spooge that they only ever get a "cost of business" slap on the wrist, and chiding tut.

"Ah ah ah, mind we spoke about not showing the sheep what we're doing. I'd like to go to the Bahamas next week, all inclusive, see you at the shareholders meeting in April."

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

🐸

Real change will happen when we hit critical mass of people understanding thats how these thing work.

So much work to be done!

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I think the majority knows, but can they be fucked to do anything about it?

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

can they be fucked to do anything about it?

Historycally there is a break point but if they wait that long... We are well done frogs on president Musk's plate.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, historically. We're already close, but at what point do the rabid supporters have enough of being ground beneath the heel? And is there enough opposition that's not apathetic to shift the balance?

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 14 hours ago

No idea... We all here agree we are getting fucked but there is 30-50% of the adult population who think first lady trump is fighting for them. Not much can be done until this base turns on him.

He is flooding the zone, which is having adverse consequences for some of them. I am sure fed workers bring harassed into resigning got to start wondering if that vote was wise.

But even if we get kamala today, it aitn like thats W for the plebs, just a slower fuckening.

[–] ShareMySims@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Seriously, I know it's tempting because most of us have no other options available, but please - be careful when you trust your mental health to one of these "drive through" therapists (if they even are that, I remember a story a little while ago about how the apps don't actually vet the therapists and their credentials, and I'm also certain that a bunch of them are now simply AI. As well as, of course, their being for profit and having access to your most personal and sensitive data and information), especially if you have an actual mental health illness and or are otherwise neurodiverse. Believe me when I tell you that in some cases no therapy is better than bad therapy (that doesn't mean you stop looking for the right kind of help, but settling for the wrong kind can do a lot of damage both short and long term).

[–] fxomt@lemm.ee 8 points 15 hours ago

Sadly they don't have much choices. Many parents are too conservative or close minded, and if you convince them finding the right therapist feels impossible. At least that's how it was for me as a kid.

It's much easier to pick up a phone, and have "someone" to vent to. It's sad, but we've commodified mental health. Convenience is the most exploitable thing available.

(i agree with you though :))

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 28 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

We are calling websites "apps" now?

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 6 points 13 hours ago

everything is an app now.

thanks, steve jerbs.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 13 hours ago

Why not? Many websites are more complex than many desktop or mobile applications, so if a website does more than just render a blog or something, I think "app" qualified. Tiktok is certainly a web application, or webapp.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

They kinda are

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 10 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Only in the sense that most apps are just a slightly modified web site where they're able to track way more of how you're interacting with it and also scrape all the data on your phone...

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 13 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

No, I was talking in the sense that most websites are just JavaScript apps, rather than served HTML as Tim intended.

[–] threshold_dweller@lemmy.today 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Sir Tim to us plebes.

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 0 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Sir Tim to us plebes

You mean the idiot who advocated for DRM on the web? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encrypted_Media_Extensions

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, that is Sir Tim.

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works -1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Not without a honorable behavior.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago

"Sir" only means he was knighted. That's all.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 4 points 16 hours ago

👍 thanks for the clarification

[–] fxomt@lemm.ee 13 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Fucking disgusting. Children are struggling with their health and their first thought is on how to profit off of it.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 3 points 15 hours ago

Parasites be like that