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

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

#121

Post by Nextgrid »

WirelessGigabit wrote: post #117
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…

With iOS you’re SOL. No extensions. And they allow in-app browsers. I wish it would be banned.

AdGuard on iOS works in Safari and all in-app browsers that use Safari View Controllers (unfortunately a lot of malicious apps such as social networks don't use it for this exact reason).

It's not a perfect replacement for UBO as the underlying filtering API isn't as powerful but it does a good enough job most of the time. It still uses the same filter lists as UBO (though again it's not able to make all rules work, due to API limitations).

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

#122

Post by Nextgrid »

princevegeta89 wrote: post #107

Fuck Tiktok. Apart from being a disgustingly deadly teenage trap it is a privacy leech at the same time. It's time people realized how useless and distracting these social media apps are, and that they are not really necessary for any functioning of the society. Real knowledge could come from reading books and sites like Wikipedia. Tiktok is good for nothing other than trapping tennagers to make them get viral by doi…

I would say fuck ad-supported social media. TikTok is no different than Facebook, Twitter, etc besides some China-related fear-mongering (which may be true or not, but the point is, nobody should be stalking people on the internet, regardless of whether the stalker is American or Chinese).

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

#123

Post by WhyTee »

octoberfranklin wrote: post #109
superkuh wrote: post #33

The 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…

> disable unsafe remote code execution ... cue the WHATWG cronies shreiking "but but but but you will BREAK THE WEB "

No post body was provided.

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

#124

Post by b1ue64 »

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.

The github repository is archived, last update was June 20, 2021 https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix

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

#125

Post by autoexec »

eek2121 wrote: post #62
dijit wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A "web app" can be a web app without including crap like this. Policies like these are usually set by sales and management.

Sales and management aren't going anywhere though, so we can expect web apps to continue to be user-hostile and better off avoided by anyone who doesn't want their privacy and security compromised.

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

#126

Post by timrice »

So I have a pi hole for my home network, and a wireguard connection back to it when I'm out and about. I run ublock on everything, block all the javascript, all the stuff.

But I do it because ads are annoying -- I don't like how they look and I don't like how they slow down every experience. I...don't really care about the tracking aspect? As far as I can tell, nothing bad happens to people because some faceless entity is tracking all your browser history.

Is there some secret malice that I'm not aware of that I should be more concerned about? Near as I can tell all this vast tracking infrastructure is really only there to more precisely target me with ads and doesn't really do anything else.

As far as privacy goes, I'm much more weirded out by the fact that my property tax records are public. Or that cell providers have the ability to fairly accurately track my location if they want to. Facebook seems pretty benign compared against that.

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

#127

Post by autoexec »

magic_hamster wrote: post #114
dijit wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What options will you suggest for web developers instead? How can you develop a convenient user experience without js? Even the most simple things require it, and will likely use a third party framework.

As someone who blocks JS by default, don't depend on remotely hosted JS. If I go to example.com and I think it seems truthworthy I might allow scripts to run from that domain and that domain only. If the site doesn't work after that, I'll just close the tab and move on. The simple stuff doesn't need bloated frameworks.

Don't obfuscate your JS either if you can help it. If I'm not sure if I should be trusting your site I'll be looking over your JS to see what's doing, but I'm not spending more time than it takes to glance over it either.

a convenient user experience to me, is one that fails gracefully without JS. Displaying text/images shouldn't need JS at all. I'll accept that it won't be as fancy without it, and I won't hold it against you for having JS as a fancy default, but a site should still be mostly functional without JS. Content at least should remain accessible.

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

#128

Post by slotrans »

magic_hamster wrote: post #114
dijit wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What options will you suggest for web developers instead? How can you develop a convenient user experience without js? Even the most simple things require it, and will likely use a third party framework.

We had lots of convenient user interfaces on the web without JS.

"The most simple things" absolutely do not require it. Simple things can be done in pure HTML. That's what the web has always fundamentally been about.

You should TRY building a site without JS. Just try it! You'll be amazed.

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

#129

Post by grishka »

superkuh wrote: post #33

The 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…

All you have to do to stop cross-site tracking is to disable third-party cookies in your browser. That's really it. This misfeature should've never been invented in the first place.

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

#130

Post by JeremyNT »

andrewflnr wrote: post #85
galangalalgol wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I don't know, I guess it could be that turning on the "I know what I'm doing" matrix features made it more strict? It seems like every e-commerce site and most blog/news sites want to host all their images offsite (mostly CDNs I assume) in some weird JS-mediated way. Anything with a captcha breaks. Any purchase checkout process that involves other domains, which is almost all of them, can be counted on to break. If s…

In that mode you can make it much more strict, such that it loads no js at all by default, and/or loads only first party scripts by default.

I think out of the box with the default blacklist mode very few things are broken, but the trade-off there is that you're running way more code. I do imagine the default list would block this specific nonsense from tiktok, although I haven't verified that assumption.

I block all scripts initially with ubo and slowly allow what I need to make a site function (or just close tab on sites I deem unworthy of the effort). This is certainly more than you could expect from a normal user.

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