Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple has an ad platform. Do they use this?
Apple's ad platform does not track users or their behavior.
They do and unlike a browser you have no control over it
TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
161–170 of 214 posts
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That's an excellent point. On the other hand, I don't think most people consider a public IP address to be private or protected information. If you're interested in finding the "root" content URL, which lives on a TikTok domain, then you've already implicitly signaled that you accept them knowing your public IP address.
Of course nobody could consider an IP address private information, similar to how a license plate can be read by everyone wherever you go.
But that doesn't mean it's not protected by privacy legislation. Your plate or IP isn't secret, but tracking everywhere it goes still impacts privacy.
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#163No, they don't track me across the web ;) I have js disabled by default on my PC's and laptops. If I need (or want) to use a site that require js, I do so in a VM, and I use that VM only for one or a few related sites (like Hacker News and Slashdot). Each VM has different screen sizes and operating systems / Linux distributions. If I research a subject that is even slightly controversial, I use the Tor browser from a…
That sounds like a lot of work for what could be covered by self-destructing cookies, spoofing your user-agent, and in the worst case using Tor (which for me is a keyboard shortcut in Brave). I really don't think the extra hassle of VMs is worth it -- these are ad companies trying to fingerprint you, not state actors using zero-days on you.
Personally, I dream of a future where 90% of content is delivered over RSS or similar and the middle man (bloated web pages) are cut out entirely.
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#164Earlier 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…
Of all things that can be complained about, JS sandboxing is actually really hardened. I think the issue is the cross site wild west we have today. Cookies, requests etc go all over the place, when it should be isolated to same origin unless specific interactions are needed (and then they should probably be user facing and blockable). I think the real answer to why this hasn't been toothfully patched yet is ads and t…
I was talking on a podcast yesterday about a wiki project I’ve been involved in and one of the things that was eye opening for the audience was just how insane those requests can be. We literally pulled up a page that showed a single wiki page making >500 ad server requests.
https://pagexray.fouanalytics.com/q/pathofexile.fandom.com%2...
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#165The 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…
Non techie here. Can you explain the difference please?
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#166If you don't use TikTok, and you happen to live in the EU, UK, California or Brazil, send them a data deletion request. Here's an easy way: https://yourdigitalrights.org/d/tiktok.com
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
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,…
I'm not familiar enough with iOS, does Apple still allow apps to use a different web view that the filters do not apply to? If so is there any reason they shouldn't require Safari View Controllers for App Store submission?
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#168So 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…
> At least if you weren't a terrorist or behaved like one.
Though sadly there are plenty of false positives here too...
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
And it’ll get worse with wasm.
Why will wasm make 'it' (security?) worse?
I was thinking that you could embed the 3rd party code in your wasm file, but also you can do it in js, so I‘m also curious what was thinking GP, because everything goes through the browser then you would just block the request to certain domains as we do now.
Re: TikTok tracks you across the web, even if you don’t use the app
#170Plenty of comments here talking about using uBlock [Origin], piHole, disabling JS, and so on, but it doesn't look like anybody has bothered to ask specifically how TikTok is actually doing the tracking. And TFA doesn't explain the method(s) in any technical detail.
I visited several of the sites mentioned in TFA, and uBlock didn't show any connection requests being made to any tiktok-related URLs. Nor were there any unfamiliar websites commonly shared amongst these sites in case TikTok was using a proxy service to hide behind.