The title should be TikTok (like Google, Meta and other ad companies) now too tracks you across the web.
Side question: uBlock Origin + Brave should be enough for this type of tracking, right?
TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
71–80 of 214 posts
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#72The TikTok pixel is not actually a pixel like in the old days. It is not a 1x1 transparent image loaded from their servers. It is executable javascript code. All you have to do to stop 99% of the corporate spying is disable unsafe remote code execution. It's hard to believe I have to say that after the many decades of people getting it drilled into their heads "Do not open random email attachments" but here we are in…
Look, I do run uBO. It doesn't even completely block JS, yet it still routinely breaks very basic pages, and I have to use a lot of webdev and industry knowledge to even try to unbreak them without entirely turning off blocking. So no, for most people who want to use mainstream websites, just turning off JS is not a real option. That this is a dystopic scenario does not change the practical reality.
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#73No post body was provided.
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#74Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#75The TikTok pixel is not actually a pixel like in the old days. It is not a 1x1 transparent image loaded from their servers. It is executable javascript code. All you have to do to stop 99% of the corporate spying is disable unsafe remote code execution. It's hard to believe I have to say that after the many decades of people getting it drilled into their heads "Do not open random email attachments" but here we are in…
I really really wish that I could convince Web Developers that not every website needs to be a web app. I keep bringing up that I don't want JS to execute random code, even if it's sandboxed, it's mostly unnecessary, and I always get the same sort of replies. Everyone calls me out of touch, I'm downvoted to oblivion, everyone suggests that I'm a unique case and everyone wants JS, they say that they don't want fragmen…
I’m upvoting you. Congrats.
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#76The TikTok pixel is not actually a pixel like in the old days. It is not a 1x1 transparent image loaded from their servers. It is executable javascript code. All you have to do to stop 99% of the corporate spying is disable unsafe remote code execution. It's hard to believe I have to say that after the many decades of people getting it drilled into their heads "Do not open random email attachments" but here we are in…
Look, I do run uBO. It doesn't even completely block JS, yet it still routinely breaks very basic pages, and I have to use a lot of webdev and industry knowledge to even try to unbreak them without entirely turning off blocking. So no, for most people who want to use mainstream websites, just turning off JS is not a real option. That this is a dystopic scenario does not change the practical reality.
I never have to turn off uBO to get pages to work. Am I just visiting really boring sites, or is there a default setting I should change to be more strict amd break more pages?
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#77The TikTok pixel is not actually a pixel like in the old days. It is not a 1x1 transparent image loaded from their servers. It is executable javascript code. All you have to do to stop 99% of the corporate spying is disable unsafe remote code execution. It's hard to believe I have to say that after the many decades of people getting it drilled into their heads "Do not open random email attachments" but here we are in…
Not only that, but at least since 8 years ago give or take, your cookies/other identifying info can be matched to an offline traceable tender such as credit card / loyalty program.
8 years ago, I could very much target viewers (no click needed) who have bought XYZ using a credit card or on the attribution end, know you saw a specific ad and went into the store and bought it.
Javascript and browse behavior added much resolution to that.
Source: Am in the advertising industry and worked on accounts in the Fortune 5.
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#78The TikTok pixel is not actually a pixel like in the old days. It is not a 1x1 transparent image loaded from their servers. It is executable javascript code. All you have to do to stop 99% of the corporate spying is disable unsafe remote code execution. It's hard to believe I have to say that after the many decades of people getting it drilled into their heads "Do not open random email attachments" but here we are in…
Look, I do run uBO. It doesn't even completely block JS, yet it still routinely breaks very basic pages, and I have to use a lot of webdev and industry knowledge to even try to unbreak them without entirely turning off blocking. So no, for most people who want to use mainstream websites, just turning off JS is not a real option. That this is a dystopic scenario does not change the practical reality.
this may be daydreaming too shallowly, but I wonder if basic Javascript UI patterns could be identified by some tool. Something along the lines of a new pane showing up in the Developer Tools that semantically identifies the roles of certain Javascript.
* This block of code ensures these UI elements are synched among each other. * This block of code sends this UI data to this server address.
Something that gives a rough & coarse data tracing dependency analysis of inputs and outputs. There may be techniques to defeat this but I think some general patterns would become established where web designs could begin to be shifted to compartmentalize different functionality to streamline such a tool being able to to pare off the insignificant and safe parts of JS and enable folks like yourself to zero in on the interesting and questionable parts.
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
It appears to just be an HTTP 301 redirect, so you could use something like curl to unroll it: curl -I https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRmqkW4N produces: HTTP/2 301 server: nginx content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8 location: https://www.tiktok.com/@spencer.sebastian.yang/video/7149578560230034734?_t=8W9Y6CPjvbf&_r=1 Trim off the GET params (the bit after the ? in the URL) and you get https://www.tiktok.com/@spencer.seba…
When you run that curl command, TikTok already knows your IP, which is a very valuable piece of information. Unless you maintain a server that has its own IP and does nothing except de-personalizing TikTok links, and always visit the tracking-free URL from another computer with a different IP, something like that. While it is possible, I am pretty sure most people, including most people here, don't want to do that.
Sounds like a new SaaS to remove TikTok tracking. Some way to redirect any TikTok link w/o the tracking. You could then do the most SV thing to offer it for free and store the same tracking info yourself and/or deliver ads from your accounts
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#80Block the domain analytics.tiktok.com
If your goal is to limit tracking, this does help, however it won't stop any server to server (versus client browser to server) data pass through. Any events the advertiser/publisher deems important, they can first-party collect the relevant tracking data and pass it from their server to the ad server (i.e. TikTok, Google, MS, FB etc.)