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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?

#41

Post by Animats »

Legend2440 wrote: post #29

> TikTok was only able to receive this information with the help of the Israeli data company AppsFlyer and Grindr itself. So basically, the TikTok app is not spying on your dating apps - your dating apps are willingly selling your information to them, through intermediaries. This means uninstalling tiktok won’t help. And worse, many other companies are getting your dating info too.

Grindr had a big data "leak" in 2024.[1] Not a "leak", really, just ordinary reselling of people's gay and HIV status. In 2025, a data broker who resold Grindr data also had a big breach. That wasn't Grindr-specific - it included Temple Run, Subway Surfers, Tinder, Grindr, MyFitnessPal, Candy Crush, Truecaller, 9GAG, Microsoft 365, and others. But not TikTok, because TikTok monetizes that info themselves.

[1] https://thehill.com/business/4614940-grindr-sold-hiv-status-...

[2] https://www.pcmag.com/news/major-data-broker-leak-might-have...

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

#42

Post by aprilthird2021 »

yibg wrote: post #36
slg wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, maybe they are colluding, but it is funny to default to that assumption over both platforms just delivering you the same content because you have the same behavior across both apps.

Not sure if they're explicitly sharing data, but there does seem to be something that's sharing data across the platforms. When I buy something from Tiktok, the ads for the same thing shows up on my instagram almost instantly. Doesn't necessarily mean they're directly sharing data of course, could be a third party too. But as a consumer that has very little difference for me.

It's because you are the exact target demographic consumer for that product, and it's visible in your behavior patterns when using your apps combined with what they know about you (age, sex, location, demographics, etc.)

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

#43

Post by mac-attack »

ptrl600 wrote: post #38

I wonder if that "fake permissions" Android sandboxing thing from like a decade ago still works. The right to lie to apps should be part of the new tech Magna Carta

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

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

#44

Post by Ferret7446 »

cheschire wrote: post #24
lelandfe wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok will de-anonymize you and connect you back to the ad networks in days, speaking as someone who tried really, really hard to not get it to do that. They probably have the most sophisticated fingerprinting ever created.

Yep! And luckily Tor Browser works pretty hard at defending against that. It even goes so far as to box the rendered page resolution so it cannot be connected to the same resolution as your main browser. But you can take first steps by using a simple dns proxy to make things more difficult.

Honestly that probably makes it easier to fingerprint you. How many people do you think actually use Tor? Instead of needing to identify you from millions of users, now they just need to identify you from the five or so Tor users

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

#46

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

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…

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.

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

#47

Post by bri3d »

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.

This isn’t likely to be a good indicator. Essentially only the network permission and any fingerprint is necessary for the tracking in this accusation; the idea is not that TikTok were spying on Grindr on the device, but that a device fingerprinting firm who broker both TikTok and Grindr data were able to correlate the user.

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

#48

Post by ehnto »

slg wrote: post #15
tkel wrote: post #8

Pretty sure TikTok and Instagram are sharing data somehow as well. My feeds are near identical.

I don't know, maybe they are colluding, but it is funny to default to that assumption over both platforms just delivering you the same content because you have the same behavior across both apps.

They don't have to collude, the third party advertisers that collate and provide shadow profiles do that work for them.

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

#49

Post by ehnto »

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #42
yibg wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if they're explicitly sharing data, but there does seem to be something that's sharing data across the platforms. When I buy something from Tiktok, the ads for the same thing shows up on my instagram almost instantly. Doesn't necessarily mean they're directly sharing data of course, could be a third party too. But as a consumer that has very little difference for me.

It's because you are the exact target demographic consumer for that product, and it's visible in your behavior patterns when using your apps combined with what they know about you (age, sex, location, demographics, etc.)

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.

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

#50

Post by svat »

yibg wrote: post #36
slg wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, maybe they are colluding, but it is funny to default to that assumption over both platforms just delivering you the same content because you have the same behavior across both apps.

Not sure if they're explicitly sharing data, but there does seem to be something that's sharing data across the platforms. When I buy something from Tiktok, the ads for the same thing shows up on my instagram almost instantly. Doesn't necessarily mean they're directly sharing data of course, could be a third party too. But as a consumer that has very little difference for me.

If you buy something from Tiktok, you presumably visit the merchant's website, which almost surely will have chosen to have a tracking pixel that sends data to FB (Instagram). You can read a bit about how tracking pixels work here: https://jvns.ca/blog/how-tracking-pixels-work/

In this case it's not Tiktok and Instagram that are sharing data with each other, but the product website that is choosing to share data with both of them.

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