Trump approves TikTok-Oracle deal, he says

[steven36]

US President Donald Trump says he's approved the agreement "in concept," according to a report. The deal would create a company called TikTok Global, and China's government would also need to sign off.

 

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has OK'd "in concept" a deal for Oracle to acquire the US operations of popular video app TikTok, says a Bloomberg report. Trump had earlier cited national security concerns in issuing a pair of executive orders that say TikTok will be banned in the states unless such a deal goes through. A ban on US downloads of the app is set to go into effect Sunday.

 

The Trump administration has said it's concerned about the TikTok app because the app collects data on its US users and TikTok's parent company, ByteDance -- a Chinese firm -- could be compelled by China's communist government to share that information. TikTok has repeatedly said such concerns are baseless.

 

On his way to a campaign rally in North Carolina, Trump told reporters that he had given the TikTok-Oracle deal "my blessing," Bloomberg reported. For the deal to be finalized, China's government would have to sign off on it, the news outlet noted, adding that Chinese officials have indicated that the government is willing to approve an agreement, so long as ByteDance doesn't have to give up the artificial intelligence algorithms behind the TikTok app.

 

The agreement has Bytedance retaining a majority of TikTok's assets and control over the app's algorithm, and Oracle and other US investors taking minority stakes, Bloomberg said.

"Oracle will get full access to review TikTok's source code and updates to make sure there are no back doors used by the company's Chinese parent to gather data or to spy on the video-sharing app's 100 million American users," Bloomberg reported, citing information from unnamed sources.

 

On Friday, Trump told Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison that he still expects the US government to get a cash payment as part of the sale, Bloomberg reported, adding that it's unclear how that would come about.

 

A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that TikTok is pleased the deal "will resolve the security concerns of the US Administration and settle questions around TikTok's future in the US."

 

"As part of this proposal, Oracle will become our trusted technology provider, responsible for hosting all US user data and securing associated computer systems to ensure US national security requirements are fully satisfied," the spokesperson said. "We are currently working with Walmart on a commercial partnership as well. Both companies will take part in a TikTok Global pre-IPO financing round in which they can take up to a 20% cumulative stake in the company. We will also maintain and expand TikTok Global's headquarters in the US, while bringing 25,000 jobs across the country."

 

Oracle CEO Safra Catz said in a statement that Oracle "will quickly deploy, rapidly scale, and operate TikTok systems in the Oracle Cloud. We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok's American users, and users throughout the world. This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders."

 

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Source

 

[virge]

I would never install that app on any device, do not trust it.

[mp68terr]

Same goes for many other apps. The difference is who is spying, who is collecting data on users.

[Novak Gregor]

29 minutes ago, mp68terr said:

Same goes for many other apps. The difference is who is spying, who is collecting data on users.

 

Exactly!

TikTok gives the info to the Chinese government, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube...to the US government.

if you don't wanna be spied upon, don't use social media apps.

[steven36]

3 hours ago, Novak Gregor said:

If you don't wanna be spied upon, don't use social media apps.

I dont but still regardless if you use them or not if you sign in to a smartphone or  windows  services your being spied  on.  Germany  ban  Office  365  in schools  before  on the same grounds  the US forcing  TIKTOC to store it's  data in a USA owned cloud provider . China  dont  allow there people to access  any USA sites  were  the data  is stored in the USA  also thy block other countries . Any USA owned sites in China the data is stored  in China  and the sites  have to obey  there laws  like hand over data to Goverment . Its not just a social media problem.  They collect  data from were  ever  millions  of  people are .  The USA  having access to  your data  is nothing  new.  98 percent of PRISM production was based on Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft".  Yahoo  is no longer any value much to NSA  like  TIKTOC is. 

 

It's  USA law  now  Trump can try to take credit for brownie points  if he wants but  its law now  if  a service not from the USA  has access   to millions of people from  the USA  data it has to be investigated by the feds . Just most of the  time its  not done in the public  like this TICTOK thing was  but it happens right often.   They mostly  overlook  other 5 eyes countries  because they share  data with each other  like UK owned Snap Chat. 

 

But really how valuable is a bunch of teenagers  singing  data ? Since most  TICTOK users are underage there  data is a concern . Google  got sued for spying  on kids and are still being sued . But they turn a blind eye to Snap Chat  and from what i read about  it  and see  on open sites  it used  for really bad stuff.

 

The  US took action  against  Google harvesting kids data  also  they take action against anything from China  that can harvest  millions of people from the   USA  data , It not the point China  collects data,   the point is the USA Govt and China Govt  dont  share data with each other  they  have to steal  it to get  it .  So you think the USA is going keep letting them have it  without a agreement?  5 eyes they all share lots of data  with each other.  But most countries   share  data with the USA to some degree   Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes. But  they dont have no idea with what China does with your data .

 

That what all closed source apps are there Trustware  you  have to trust were the data is stored  , also you have to trust whoever have access to the apps source code   to not  put in any backdoors or not allow   someone else  to do it, In this case  that what Oracle job will be. But there  is no way to really know  what the hell they  doing .So you just have to trust  them are not not use it . OpenSource  is not trustware  anybody can read the code to see do it have a backdoor  and it can easliy be removed in a update and you know if it still exist or not.  

 

 

When  i chat online  in private  i use  a open source XMPP  server with no logs  not in the USA  with open source encryption  set up in  open source chat software .   If i dont trust a site i use  Tor Browser + VPN  like reddit. But sites  like Microsoft  , Google  ,Facebook and Twitter   i dont  sign into  because they want a phone #  so they can track you . On a smartphone they already have your number if you use there services . 

 

 

I use to get around Google  on Linux with a id i made up with a vpn  but anymore  it ask for phone number  so i stop signing  in again .  All  the  stuff  i had  before  i used VPNs   from before 2012  i deleted  in 2012  . Facebook  , Google  and Yahoo,   Facebook ,  Microsoft , Google all of them will want a phone  number  if you dont let them track your real ip.