<
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210222/23523246299/oracle-which-promised-to-protect-tiktok-user-data-china-helps-chinese-law-enforcement-snarf-through-lots-private-data.shtml>
"As you’ll recall, last summer there was a whole performative nonsense thing
with then President Trump declaring TikTok to be a national security threat
(just shortly after some kids on TikTok made him look silly by reserving a
million tickets to a Trump rally they never intended to attend). Trump and his
cronies insisted that TikTok owner ByteDance had to sell the US operations of
TikTok to an American firm. The whole rationale about this was the claim –
unsupported by any direct evidence – that TikTok was a privacy risk, because it
was owned by a firm based in Beijing, and that firm likely had connections to
the Chinese government (as do basically all large Chinese firms). But how was
that privacy risk any worse than pretty much any other company? No one ever
seemed to be able to say.
Eventually, after Trump blocked both Microsoft and Walmart from doing the deal,
he “approved” a non-sale, but “hosting” deal with Oracle, whose founder/chair,
Larry Ellison, and CEO, Safra Catz, were both big Trump supporters. It quickly
came out that TikTok’s investors deliberately went hunting for a company that
they knew Trump liked, and that’s why they asked Oracle.
But, part of the announcement of the “deal” was that Oracle would make sure
that US TikTok users had their data protected, and that Oracle would keep that
data outside the hands of the Chinese government. That seemed somewhat rich,
considering that Oracle’s initial rise to being a tech giant was built almost
entirely on its close connections to the US government, and specifically the
intelligence agencies. But it’s become even more rich now that the Intercept
reports that Oracle actually has a lucrative business helping repressive law
enforcement in China do surveillance work. The long story is absolutely full of
totally shocking – but somehow not surprising – details."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
