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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?

#91

Post by Xiol »

tkel wrote: post #27
cheschire wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Setting up a whole-home adblocking solution takes a few minutes with pi hole, and it's got a very functional web interface for actions such as unblocking specific sites for specific systems on your network. That dns proxy looks intriguing but looks like quite a bit different from the simplicity of pi hole.

dnsproxy is a single binary that does everything, very simple.

My nontechnical wife isn't going to care it's a single binary when I remove the PiHole web interface that she's used to using on the odd occasion she needs to disable blocked for a bit (for example).

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

#92

Post by hapticmonkey »

ajdude wrote: post #64

Earlier this year I downloaded TikTok once, I needed to access some very niche videos and couldn't watch them without getting an account. I never added anybody, and I never associated with any other socials, but somehow I started getting emails from TikTok that one of my NEIGHBORS were viewing my profile! Even used their full name. I deleted the account and uninstalled the app.

I uninstalled it after about half an hour of use when it became clear the app kept pushing me to watch videos with Andrew Tate (with him on the top half of the screen and random racing games on the bottom half). It’s dystopian.

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

#93

Post by flirtyqwerty »

cons0le wrote: post #53
banana_sandwich wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

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?

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

#94

Post by randycupertino »

ajdude wrote: post #64

Earlier this year I downloaded TikTok once, I needed to access some very niche videos and couldn't watch them without getting an account. I never added anybody, and I never associated with any other socials, but somehow I started getting emails from TikTok that one of my NEIGHBORS were viewing my profile! Even used their full name. I deleted the account and uninstalled the app.

I had a creepy one like this happen to me with Linkedin. I sold my uncle's guitar on craigslist using a throwaway gmail address to a guy with a very unique, rhyming name that I would never forget (ie - Gerald Herald). Immediately after he left with the guitar linkedin suggests I add him to my professional network. I never logged in to linkedin from that gmail, never looked this guy up, don't have linkedin app installed on my phone, literally met him for 60 seconds to get cash and hand over a guitar. It still weirds me out.

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

#95

Post by johnofthesea »

mc3301 wrote: post #32
banana_sandwich wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

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.

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

#96

Post by jonway »

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.

Faking data is a good method, but has issues it seems.

Moxie tried that with GoogleSharing system back in the day.

Not really sure what the biggest downsides were, but it was discontinued.

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

#97

Post by monster_truck »

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.

Please spend 5 seconds thinking about this. It isn't impossible, it isn't earnestly valuable now that gambling has taken ad fraud's throne (guess what the throne is for), and fake data doesn't work.

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

#98

Post by sofixa »

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?

Not who you asked, but personally I'm using an Onyx Boox Palma, which is a phone-sized Android device with an e-ink screen. I have Readwise's Reader on it, which doubles as "read later" and RSS feed reader, and works offline. Pretty happy with the workflow overall - I use it extensively when travelling and having time to waste (e.g. waiting at an airport or while on the plane/train).

Note about Onyx, they're kind of violating GPL by refusing to publish source code. Also, their Android devices are a bit special and you have to jump through a couple of small hoops at set up to be able to use Google Play (nothing special or complicated).

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

#99

Post by izacus »

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.

American legal system will curb stomp any tiny company on the other side of the world if they dare to draw an outline of Mickey Mouse, and you're saying that this same nation can't stop big abusive companies?

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

#100

Post by thecopy »

izacus wrote: post #99
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.

American legal system will curb stomp any tiny company on the other side of the world if they dare to draw an outline of Mickey Mouse, and you're saying that this same nation can't stop big abusive companies?

The big companies simply gives the predisent of the USA a made-up peace prize or a gold Rolex and get exempted.
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