Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

consumerreports.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 214 posts

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

#131

Post by orev »

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.

> Even the most simple things require it

The “simple things” like displaying a document don’t need JS. Why does every knowledge base system is JS when they are literally just showing a document? Or discussion forums when you’re JS reading them?

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

#132

Post by jazzyjackson »

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.

I was converted once I discovered that amazon.com still works with javascript disabled. You just do things the old fashioned way, form submissions that change the session state on the server and generate the html for the next page. I use "redmine" for project development / issue tracking and that works without javascript too.

The different form input elements do a lot of work for you, and are very platform-agnostic, unlike javascript, which will fail silently as soon as someone is on an out-of-date android/ios version.

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

#133

Post by vorticalbox »

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.

Do you have some examples of things that require JS to do?

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

#134

Post by numpad0 »

zarzavat wrote: post #108
notRobot wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

uBO can break sites, but in my experience doesn't to the degree that you're describing. Perhaps you should clear all settings and re-install the extension once and see if that helps? Do you maybe have other content blocking extensions running at the same time as uBO that are causing 'clashes'?

For me uBO breaks 3D-secure, so it does in fact break every e-commerce checkout that uses it. I just disable the entire extension before I buy something, but it’s rather awkward.

That “enter just your web password here” thing? Don’t seem to for me. Amazon checkout seems to be breaking from something recently but likely not uBO filters.

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

#135

Post by aendruk »

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.

The documentation of uBlock Origin is worth reading.

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

#136

Post by mlindner »

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.

CSS works just fine without any javascript at all.

Here's a really obvious example: https://nextspaceflight.com/

Every single link on this page requires javascript to work, when they could be actually just proper href links.

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

#137

Post by number6 »

timrice wrote: post #126

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 enti…

The argument goes, that if they can target you for ads they can also correlate this with political beliefs, your ethnicity, your financial situation and so one.

If you want a credit and you are friends with people who don't pay back their debts you are also a risk for the bank and get a higher rate.

If you want an insurance and you are a extrem cyclists you won't get one.

If you open a shopping side and they know you can afford it, they mark up the price. (Udemy is ridiculously doing this)

Yes, this is death by a thousand paper cuts.

What could the Chinese Government do with the data? Lower or rise your social credit score? Stop you from visiting China. Throw you in Jail for watching Winnie Poo?

All the other tech giants were in the US and so we didn’t have to worried about this. At least if you weren't a terrorist or behaved like one. Now China has a totally different agenda.

Is it okay to be LGBTQ in China? What happeneds if you watch a TikTok with this theme?

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

#138

Post by leksak »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #42

No surprise. Every company with an ad platform uses a pixel. Meta, Google, Reddit, Microsoft. Advertisers add it to their site to get access to things like tracking of performance if their ads, and custom audiences for retargeting or look-alike audiences. In exchange, that ad platform gets your browsing data. It's not great, but everyone is doing it so I wouldn't consider the fact that TikTok, one of the biggest soci…

TFA:"Consumer Reports found that the company uses some of the same techniques as Google, Meta, and other companies to collect personal data" It's even the article byline!

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

#139

Post by jjav »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #36
d110af5ccf wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also still using it and haven't run into any issues so far. But it is unmaintained for quite some time now last I checked so I assume that eventually it will just stop working. It's quite nice though. I have it set to disable any and all third party resources by default and from there it's generally fairly easy to permit the necessary things the first time I visit a site. And if it proves to be difficult I gener…

As long as firefox maintains the API it should work just fine. But the day the don't a lot of people will be unhappy. I always figured some bored javascript wizard would eventually pick it up since gorhill archived it, but I don't think anyone has

I so wish umatrix maintenance was restarted. Hopefully someone capable will. I'd donate money to that effort. While ublock origin is nice, umatrix is so much better.

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

#140

Post by giuliomagnifico »

vdfs wrote: post #14
giuliomagnifico wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, with a Pi-Hole.

Regex blacklist: (\.|^)tiktokcdn\.com$ -tiktokcdn-com.akamaized.net$ (\.|^)tiktokv\.com$ (\.|^)musical\.ly$ (\.|^)tiktok\.com$

Yes, if you’re lazy or you want to quickly switch some services on/off, I suggest you the great app: Pi-Hole Remote (https://rocketscience-it.nl), there's a handy list with all of the privacy intrusive services (regex) that you can turn on/off with a switch (screenshot https://ibb.co/fNDyq36)
Post reply on HN