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TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

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Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#111

Post by KellyCriterion »

johnofthesea wrote: post #95
mc3301 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube: There are a few long-form creators I watch, maybe 4 hours a month of content. Besides that, viewing history is off, no apps, browser extensions block mostly everything (comments, suggestions, etc.) Instagram: I have a 15 minute daily timer, because I sometimes post, and I sometimes receive DMs. Reddit: Fully blocked, I think I ublocked everything. Tiktok: I won't even download it ever again. It has an algori…

For those that are subscribed to Youtube channels: no need to have account. Youtube has RSS.

IMHO, the account is esp. useful for one thing: selecting explicitly which channels you want to block - if you do this over some time, then you see that YouTube content is by far not unlimited, acutally rather limited if you select only really interesting things for you :-))

Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#112

Post by johnisgood »

banana_sandwich wrote: post #26
mc3301 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

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!

Why were you scrolling, what were you scrolling for? Were you trying to fill some void? :D

I do scroll on Instagram, but it was mainly to share some reels with my girlfriend, no other purpose. It was not addiction. I tend to forget to check hers (which she does not like so I try not to), and when I check hers, I look at some reels to send back, then I close the app.

I did scroll on Facebook when I started using it recently, and it might be leaning towards the addiction side, but I stopped myself from doing it because it is a waste of time and I realized everyone is arguing there, and their arguments are horrendous. I feel like were I to read it all day it would dumb me down.

But yeah, I think the best move is to not play at all. Use Facebook only when you absolutely must. Same with anything else. If you have Discord, you may use it for discussions, whether technical or not, but it can be just as addictive as the other website.

Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#113

Post by aembleton »

gruez wrote: post #61
mac-attack wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to sound like a those pesky Kagi supporters, but that is built into Graphene OS.

It's not, though. If you deny location permissions the app will still know and pester you to enable. Same with other sensitive permissions with the exception of internet.

Thats a shame, I used to be able to pass fake location data through on an app by app basis using an Xposded module. That was probably 10 years ago though.

Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#114

Post by gverrilla »

octoberfranklin wrote: post #79
fragmede wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's the dating scene where you are? Whatever bubble I'm in, in the US, while I could not be on Instagram, that would be making things harder on myself.

No, that really wouldn't. Instagram is a tool to help women manage their fan club of orbiters and get validation from them on demand (which is what makes so addictive for women). It might look like "hey there's all these hot women here if i hang out here i will get dates with them" but that's the mirage.

Yes men don't do none of that at all!

Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#115

Post by aembleton »

cheschire wrote: post #13
OptionOfT wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pi-Hole only works when the tracking / ad scripts are hosted from different domains than the actual content.

Don't worry, when you blackhole the entire tiktok domain, you'll still be able to use grindr. Or did you still want to be able to view tiktok? Sorry. Can't help you there. Or can I? https://www.torproject.org/download/ or https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/proton-vpn-fast-sec...

> Don't worry, when you blackhole the entire tiktok domain, you'll still be able to use grindr.

Grindr can still sell your data.

Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#116

Post by aembleton »

hekkle wrote: post #51
gerdesj wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I (UK based) have pfblocker-ng running at the perimeter with quite a lot of blocking. My browser FF has uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger too. Amazon works fine. I suspect they work along the rather practical lines of: if we can snag your data we will but if you want to block our efforts at predation but want to spend out, we are fine with that too. Amazon absolutely will not refuse your money and they are jolly good…

Fair enough, it does make sense that they will maximise their profits where they can, I'm just saying that it (the app not the website) refuses to work unless you provide it a full scope of literally every permission available. Maybe it has more to do with attestation, and verifying that you are not a scammer, than stealing and selling data?

What does the app give you that the website doesn't? I've never tried it as the website works just fine.

Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#117

Post by KellyCriterion »

oefrha wrote: post #87
sweca wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is because when you click a shared TikTok link, your account and the sharer's accounts are associated in a social graph. The sharer will see your account as a suggested friend and vice versa.

No sharing link needed. Before I deleted my Facebook account more than a decade ago, it was already suggesting random people I met once IRL and are at least two hops away in terms of existing FB relationships. I had very few friends (~20 IIRC).

Id suggest FB & co also uses location tracking & proximity to expand their social graph continuosly? Most people just dont care about these privacy settings, and if you have a vast number of users, it doesnt matter if ther are 10% "techsavy people" because the mass is just big enough to create profiles on which you then easily can compute/guess other connections & joints in the social graph.

Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#118

Post by cons0le »

flirtyqwerty wrote: post #93
cons0le wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its the endless shortform videos. The brain was not meant to switch contexts every 20 seconds for 3 hours straight. I replaced most of my screens with e ink, and only allow myself to scroll through text based sites and rss feeds

Interesting concept. I'd like to hear more about your process. What e-ink screen(s?) are you using? Any good text based websites to recommend?

On my desk I have 2 monitors, one normal 24" and one dasung paperlike. If I need to watch a video or do work that needs high refresh, I just switch to the other monitor. One side benefit of this is you can't use your computers in the dark anymore, you have to turn on the lights like you're reading a book. This does wonders for your eyes.

The e ink screen I use the most is a boox 10.3 tablet. It does have internet and can run android apps. So I can read rss feeds, hacker news, manga, ect. I don't do any "serious" work on it and don't sign in with my main google/apple accounts. The build quality for the price is superb, and its the first eink device I've had that feels premium like an ipad. Its also super thin and the battery lasts me ~2 months on a charge.

As far as fun text based websites, you're already on the best one :) But I also have a million RSS feeds that I read to get the news.

Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#119

Post by cheschire »

aembleton wrote: post #115
cheschire wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, when you blackhole the entire tiktok domain, you'll still be able to use grindr. Or did you still want to be able to view tiktok? Sorry. Can't help you there. Or can I? https://www.torproject.org/download/ or https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/proton-vpn-fast-sec...

> Don't worry, when you blackhole the entire tiktok domain, you'll still be able to use grindr. Grindr can still sell your data.

It was a response to same-origin tracking. I didn’t claim grindr would not sell your data.

Re: TikTok unlawfully tracks shopping habits and use of dating apps?

#120

Post by oefrha »

KellyCriterion wrote: post #117
oefrha wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sharing link needed. Before I deleted my Facebook account more than a decade ago, it was already suggesting random people I met once IRL and are at least two hops away in terms of existing FB relationships. I had very few friends (~20 IIRC).

Id suggest FB & co also uses location tracking & proximity to expand their social graph continuosly? Most people just dont care about these privacy settings, and if you have a vast number of users, it doesnt matter if ther are 10% "techsavy people" because the mass is just big enough to create profiles on which you then easily can compute/guess other connections & joints in the social graph.

Yes, that’s my assumption, although IIRC I never gave FB location permissions, so it might be temporarily sharing an IP address by being on the same WiFi or something. Come to think of it they had access to WiFi SSIDs as well in the early days even when location permissions were off.
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