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TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app

consumerreports.org

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Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app

#11

Post by mrj »

Yeah I had to implement this once because we ran a handful of ads on TikTok, so they wanted access to all of our traffic. I protested, saying they didn't need all traffic to do analytics for people who click through.. just tell me how to identify the traffic you need. This is fair, if somebody clicks on an ad then analytics would be expected.

Yeah no, they didn't allow their advertisers to do that. I ended up getting permission to remove from the site when their pixel was found to be causing a performance impact for users. But without good monitoring for that they would have still been running, possibly for forever. I'm sure this is basically how they get to be everywhere.

Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app

#13

Post by chaxor »

jszymborski wrote: post #7
DerekBickerton wrote: post #3

> You can’t stop data collection from the tech industry altogether, but with a few simple steps you can make a dent in the amount of information that’s being collected. > Use privacy-protecting browser extensions. You can add extensions to your browser that will do a lot to protect your privacy. One is Disconnect, made by the company that performed our TikTok investigation. The Disconnect extension shows you how webs…

Shame uMatrix is dead, but I use it to allow javascript for the local domain, and disable for third-party domains by default. It allows me to use at least some websites without too much fiddling with the uMatrix settings.

What do you mean umatrix is dead?

I'm using it now, and it's IMO hands down *the absolute best extension I have ever used*.

uMatrix >> (uBO | noScript | privacy badger | cookie ninja | cookie autodelete | etc)

I use all of them along with vimium-ff and midnightlizard, but uMatrix is by far the best idea for managing what is run for better privacy and performance of browsing.

Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app

#15

Post by nickphx »

mrj wrote: post #11

Yeah I had to implement this once because we ran a handful of ads on TikTok, so they wanted access to all of our traffic. I protested, saying they didn't need all traffic to do analytics for people who click through.. just tell me how to identify the traffic you need. This is fair, if somebody clicks on an ad then analytics would be expected. Yeah no, they didn't allow their advertisers to do that. I ended up getting…

Why not use the "server to server" api for conversion events?

Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app

#16

Post by jszymborski »

chaxor wrote: post #13
jszymborski wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shame uMatrix is dead, but I use it to allow javascript for the local domain, and disable for third-party domains by default. It allows me to use at least some websites without too much fiddling with the uMatrix settings.

What do you mean umatrix is dead? I'm using it now, and it's IMO hands down *the absolute best extension I have ever used*. uMatrix >> (uBO | noScript | privacy badger | cookie ninja | cookie autodelete | etc) I use all of them along with vimium-ff and midnightlizard, but uMatrix is by far the best idea for managing what is run for better privacy and performance of browsing.

I use it daily too and it's on my list of essential plugins, but gorhill archived the repo and development has halted as best as I can tell [0] which leads to complications [1].

[0] https://www.ghacks.net/2020/09/20/umatrix-development-has-en...

[1] https://www.ghacks.net/2021/07/15/umatrix-has-an-unfixed-vul...

Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app

#19

Post by mcast »

When you share a video link on TikTok, it’ll append a bunch of tracking data to know who opened it and notify you. That’s not really a surprise, but what’s more sneaky is they shorten the “shared” video links into a few unique characters without visible tracking data and parameters in the URL (AFAIK they used to visibly expose tracking data on the URL a few years ago but recently started using a URL shortener).

ie. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRmqkW4N

What seems like an inconspicuous and universal URL for a video actually sends a lot of advertising and tracing data back to TikTok’s servers about your friend/you.

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