TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

Post by mc3301 » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 8:54 AM UTC

safety1st wrote: post #74

banana_sandwich wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be highly addicted to scrolling. Tiktok, reddit, instagram, everything. It nearly cost me my relationship and I swore it off ever since. I’ve been offline those apps for a few months now, and have never felt better. Cant believe what i was allowing to happen to my attention!

This is so true. I can't signal boost it enough. I'm also a recovering social media addict, it was a slow and painstaking transition but the benefits in terms of attention, concentration and attitude have been profound. The main metric for me was going from almost 5 hours a day of phone time 2-3 years ago, to about 1 hour today. Of course the socials still snuck in on other devices but that was the main thing which k…

Post by ehnto » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 9:27 AM UTC

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #83

ehnto wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much more likely an explicit retargeting ad network that doesn't realise they already bought it. Retargeting has been a thing for like 15 plus years now. Visit website for knives, ad network tracking cookie notes that down, same ad network later serves you ads for the same knives. Or some convoluted data sharing network that has the same outcome these days.

It's not much more likely. People don't realize but demographic targeting works really well. When you are a certain age, certain gender, living in a certain area, with a few other inferred characteristics, you're very likely to be talking about, thinking about, and buying a small set of product types

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 9:42 AM UTC

mc3301 wrote: post #12

thisisthenewme wrote: post #6

I guess it's pretty much impossible to stop these companies from gathering data, there's too much money in it, it's too easy to implement, and there's no cohesive force to stop them. I'm wondering whether a crowdfunded effort to feed fake data into these systems would work so we overwhelm them and make their plans a bit more difficult.

"The only winning move is not to play." If you look at these systems that same way some people look at casinos - places specifically designed to take your money - you realize there isn't a way to change them nor improve your overall experience with them. You just don't go inside. I'm kinda hoping that it becomes the trend in the next few decades to completely abandon these algorithm-driven data-hoarding attention-ste…

Post by Tade0 » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 9:56 AM UTC

Mathnerd314 wrote: post #66

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not identical concepts, but I've been bringing up "dopamine hygiene" a lot lately and it seems to resonate with people. Given that these companies tend to converge on addiction as their business model, I think there's a lot of overlap.

It seems an absurd amount of people misuse the term dopamine, I found this video https://youtu.be/x6_Ukic1tRM?t=1297 (in Polish, but there are subtitles and dubs). If you want to continue to spread "manipulative disinformation", by all means, some people have to be evil, but just be clear that it is pseudoscience up front.

Post by mr_toad » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 10:05 AM UTC

asdff wrote: post #77

hekkle wrote: post #3

If you want to find which apps are the worst at this use GrapheneOS. Amazon flat out REFUSES to work unless it has unfettered access to everything.

Ironically amazon.com works perfectly with javascript disabled. One of the few major sites that still do in my experience.