> Yu is a former engineering lead for ByteDance in the US who worked at the company between 2017 and 2018.
This seems like an outrage bait lawsuit. The facts in the case are five years out of date, ByteDance has been through the wringer in the ensuing years and there’s no evidence that this backdoor exists in the current app.
There's a ton of evidence that the TikTok app is used for tracking and to assume the CCP doesnt have access to a huge trove of personal data from its primary geo-strategic competitor is ridiculouly naive.
The lawsuit isn’t about tracking users. Pretty much every social media app tracks users, that’s how surveillance capitalism works.
The lawsuit is also not about whether China has access to US citizens’ information. And even if it was, why should I, as a US citizen, worry about that? They can’t put me in jail or fire me. If you’re an American, you should be worried about what the US government knows about you.
Anyways, the lawsuit is about an alleged backdoor. I can’t see how the plaintiff could know what present day code they’re running, and I can’t see why they waited so long to report it.
The lawsuit isn’t really even about backdoors or tracking, it’s for wrongful termination. When I say it’s outrage bait, I mean it’s making explosive allegations that ByteDance would really prefer not to deal with right now. It feels like a legal move calculated to pressure the company into a quiet and generous settlement.
This seems like an outrage bait lawsuit. The facts in the case are five years out of date, ByteDance has been through the wringer in the ensuing years and there’s no evidence that this backdoor exists in the current app.