After Tiktok India considers banning, 275 other apps including PUBG mobile and AliExpress

LAwLz · July 28, 2020

2 hours ago, SeAsOn3 said:

But we have to protect our data from China, cuz we (Indians) don't have any problems with USA

Absolutely.

From what I know, India is trying to become the new China. As in, western countries using it for cheap labor. The Indian government has even reached out to companies like Apple and Samsung and given them special deals if they move manufacturing to India. For India, it is good. Just look at how China has grown into becoming a massive economical super power thanks to being basically a big factory for western countries. But in order to become the new China they first have to get rid of the "old China", and right now the tactics for that seems to be to spread hate and doubt about China.

The fact that Indian and Chinese soldiers are killing each other at the border is probably not insignificant either.

All I am saying is that to me, as a Swede, I think the US is just as bad if not worse than China in terms of data harvesting. I also think that India and China doesn't seem all that different in terms of oppressive governments. What does worry me however is all the anti-China propaganda being spread by massively powerful people and countries because to me it seems like China has just become a scapegoat and something governments use to justify bad things.

For example right now it seems like the Indian government has spread a lot of anti-China propaganda and as a result people are now okay with a government going in and dictating which apps their citizens are and aren't allowed to use on their phones. Imagine if the Russian government went "okay, nobody in Russia are allowed to play Overwatch anymore". People would be calling them a terrible, oppressive government and things like that. Yet when the Indian government says "okay nobody in India is allowed to play PuBG anymore" then everyone just goes "oh yeah sounds reasonable" because of all the "China bad" propaganda.

Zarkex · July 28, 2020

I've checked out multiple of these TikTok clones and mostly them out of India sucked. Especially "Chingari" it doesn't even have a search function, there's no way to delete your account, hashtags don't work and it's just a mess in general.

I found this alternative from Switzerland promising though, it's called "frooze" and all the aformentioned features actually work in that app. It doesn't have that many downloads yet though. Link to their site: https://frooze.ch

Edited July 28, 2020 by Zarkex

mr moose · July 28, 2020

12 hours ago, Sauron said:

Banning a few apps isn't going to make a difference there.

Yes it will. India isn't the only country that wants to ban tiktok for these exact reasons. When china understand the demographics of a nations population, what they like, don't like, how they want to vote and what side of politics they sit then they can leverage that through all forms of corporate and trade politics.

12 hours ago, Sauron said:

Have they banned Google or Facebook too? If they had a law prohibiting this type of data collection and blanked banned any and all services that refuse to comply I could almost respect it but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The problem here is not the specifically the data collection but who is collecting it. I am sure they have a problem with the US collecting their countries data just as much, but due to the nature of international politics, the US is currently not a threat the same way china is. And blocking their apps and services would only start conflict.

12 hours ago, Sauron said:

China is hardly going to be intimidated or upset by the ban of a few apps... diplomacy (aka "asking politely") at least has a chance of accomplishing something without directly inconveniencing Indians in the process.

I don't know why you think the intention is intimidation, they certainly aren't trying to do that much less expect that to be the outcome. They have already asked nicely and got nothing in response.

When it comes to international diplomacy there is no room for absolutes. A country (any country) can't just apply policies absolutely to everyone, because every country is different.

Kisai · July 28, 2020

14 hours ago, Sauron said:

It's pretty sad if the sovereignty of your country depends on banning phone apps... what's this supposed to accomplish anyway other than pettily "getting back" at China?

Think a little harder about that. The issue with the Chinese apps is much the same problem with outsourcing to China or India in the first place. All it takes are idiot politicians to pass a law that makes it illegal to sell/monetize something in that country, or that the data privacy must have the servers operate within their legal jurisdiction to immediately tank a lot of businesses.

Which isn't to say I don't think your data is any safer in the US. Ultimately where "private" data should be stored is on the moon or satellites where it's out of reach of all countries legal jurisdictions. That leaves the actual businesses free to service foreign countries without having to operate equipment within their borders that the corrupt law enforcement or corrupt politicians might use or go after themselves (eg the Russian government likes to steal entire companies, Right into Putin's pockets.)

Like, in a perfectly stable world, nobody would care where personal information is stored. But that's not reality, and more and more countries are sliding into authoritarianism which means personal data collected can quite readily be used against those in the country, and those outside it. Hence if the data was stored in un-manned space stations, moon bases, satellites, the cost to retrieve that data becomes incredibly expensive if you can't hack into those sources from the earth. You can also readily blind satellites or just blow them up (with everyone noticing) so it's not impossible to ruin everyone's access, but ideally you just want companies to operate satellites that are used to circumvent the "lawful access" provisions of countries, by making it subject to no country, not to use it to run an illegal business, which I'm sure countries would readily blow up a business-owned satellite that was running bullet-proof hosting services.