by eleveriven
5 subcomments
- The headline makes it sound uniquely sinister, but most of what's described here is just the modern adtech stack doing what it's been doing for a decade. The real tension is that advertisers want attribution, sites want revenue, and users want privacy and the current system optimizes almost entirely for the first two
- "TikTok" in the headline for views but every ad system is sucking up as much data as it possibly can: cross-site tracking pixels, cookies, device ids, fingerprinting, app snooping, extension snooping, etc.
by bonsai_spool
5 subcomments
- > "TikTok empowers users with transparent information about its privacy practices and gives them multiple tools to customise their experience," a TikTok spokesperson says. "Advertising pixels are industry standard and used widely across social and media platforms"
Such Doublespeak—the word empower really means enfeeble and privacy its opposite.
by y-c-o-m-b
1 subcomments
- Most popular platforms are tracking and spying on you. My friends and I also believe Slack private DMs are compromised as we often times see ads directly pertaining to oddball discussions we don't have outside of Slack.
Most people here probably know this already, but you can minimize some of this by using privacy browser extensions [1], containerized browsing [2], a good VPN [3], and/or Pihole [4].
1: https://duckduckgo.com/compare-privacy?tab=extensions
2: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-use-firefox-contain...
3: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CRtEQzSVE59jj5ROKZlt... (*do your research, e.g. NordVPN creeps me out with aggressive advertising practices even though they're highly rated)
4: https://pi-hole.net/
- Modern ads and tracking are effectively malware. Treat them and their operators as hostile and block everything you can.
by youknownothing
4 subcomments
- This wasn't a problem until it was done by a Chinese company, when American companies (Meta, X, Google, etc.) spied on us we saw it as a triumph of entrepreneurism.
by cucumber3732842
0 subcomment
- Facebook was doing tracking pixels in the 00s. It probably worked even better then because stuff that's currently in apps was on the web back then and fewer people ran adblockers.
Every party in the advertising ecosystem should be assumed to be doing this (and your adblocker should be trying its best to block it).
by aurareturn
2 subcomments
- Related: Facebook owner reportedly paid Republican firm to push message TikTok is ‘the real threat’
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/30/facebook-...
Also relevant: https://paulgraham.com/say.html
by everdrive
2 subcomments
- Some people might find this useful. I'd be interested to know if there's a more complete list out there.
https://github.com/danhorton7/pihole-block-tiktok/blob/main/...
- Tiktok is also running web scrapers for some reason. I guess ML stuff. Their bot is hitting URLs on my server that haven't ever been linked elsewhere on the web and haven't been valid for years. Nobody else is still trying to get to them since I retired that subdomain.
- Nothing new here. This is why they eventually rolled back Chrome's initiative to automatically reject third-party cookies. Industry backlash was that the analytics of too many sites would break. Best thing to do is to switch to a privacy centric browser.
- It's this sort of thing that makes me run a home DNS server with a blocklist. It even works when I leave the house thanks to Android's PrivateDNS function, I don't need to turn on a VPN, all DNS requests even on mobile hit my AdGuardHome. I use quite a conservative DNS blocklist (oisd.nl) but it means I don't have the family complain various sites are broken.
- SSSTik is a free TikTok download tool that helps you download TikTok videos without watermark online. ssstt.app Save TT videos with the highest quality in an MP4 file format and HD resolution. To find out how to use the TikTok watermark remover, follow the instructions below The website www.ssstt. app offers a complimentary tool designed to facilitate the download of TikTok videos (previously known as Musically) without watermarks. Users can save TikTok videos in high-definition MP4 format, ensuring optimal quality. To learn how to utilize the TikTok video downloader, please follow the instructions outlined below. The process is straightforward, allowing you to download watermark-free TikTok videos in just three simple steps. Additionally, ssstiktok provides a free service for converting and downloading TikTok audio in MP3 format.
by elischleifer
0 subcomment
- This headline could be written about every major social network on our planet. Tracking pixels are not something TikTok invented.
- This kind of tracking is insane. I built a self-hosted analytics setup so I can see how my sites are performing without sending anything to ad-tech companies [0].
Keeps the data on my server, gives real insights, and doesn’t contribute to the surveillance ecosystem [0].
[0] https://www.uxwizz.com
by kenjackson
0 subcomment
- TikTok, more than any other app, seems to be aware of things that I talk about. I'm not big on conspiracy theories (well until the past six months or so), but I really wonder if TikTok has figured out a way to listen with the microphone on my phone. I will be chatting about the most random thing -- needing a new washing machine -- and then I'll suddenly get some washing machine add in the next hour. Or someone will mention a movie being snubbed for the Oscar's, and then an edit for that movie pops up.
I never did a search or anything else on any app on any devices related to these things, but somehow TikTok seemed to know. Maybe coincidence that I have heightened awareness of... but it does seem different.
by AlienRobot
0 subcomment
- I wonder if the writer asked the website that sent their e-mail to TikTok why they were doing that in the first place.
To be honest, I'm not sure I understand why would you want to put a tracking pixel from TikTok on your website? What is the gain for the website?
- Same applies to Google, Facebook, Twitter, you name it.
by 1vuio0pswjnm7
0 subcomment
- Software requirements:
You must use a web browser
The web browser must
(a) auto-load resources, e.g., images
(b) display images. If images are optional, then the option must be enabled, e.g., by default
For example,
I often fail these requirements as I manually retrieve information without a browser. For example, I read the information from the BBC website without meeting the software requirements for social media pixel tracking
I also use a text-only browser to read HTML offline. This browser fails the software requirements as it does not auto-load resources. Further, I compile it without support for images
In addition to the software requirements there is also a requirement for access to remote DNS controlled by a third party
If you do not use the TikTok website, then your browser has no need to retrieve DNS data for tiktok.com or other domains registered to or used by TikTok
Unless you delegate lookups to a third party DNS provider such as an ISP, Cloudflare, Google, Quad9, etc. or run a local resolver that accesses remote authoritative servers then the required web browser specified above will not be able to retrieve DNS data for tiktok.com or whatever domains are used for the tracking pixel
For example, I use only locally-stored DNS data served from local authoritative DNS servers and localhost forward proxy memory. There is no DNS data for tiktok.com or other domains used for TikTok's tracking pixel
NB. The subject of this comment is (c) software and DNS requirements for pixel tracking. A different subject is (d) how many users may or may not meet such requirements, e.g., high numbers versus low numbers, "average" users versus non-"average" users, and so on. HN replies often attempt to change the subject to (d)
by cf100clunk
2 subcomments
- Tracking pixels are routine in emails, not just websites, so the article is incomplete as it does not address how to guard against those.
- Here's a partial list of domains a browser without any extensions contacts when navigating to this article:
- cxense.com, *.piano.io: Advertising & analytics, loads obfuscated JS
- cdn.taboola.com: Advertising & analytics, loads obfuscated JS
- *.optimizely.com: Advertising & analytics, loads obfuscated JS
- cdn.tinypass.com: Paywall, loads obfuscated JS
- *.mparticle.com: Advertising & analytics, loads obfuscated JS
- pagead2.googlesyndication.com: Advertising & analytics, loads obfuscated JS
- chartbeat.net: Analytics, loads obfuscated JS
- dotmetrics.net: Analytics, loads JS
by profsummergig
0 subcomment
- I keep getting this alert (on Android) saying TikTok is draining the battery even after I've swiped-up on the app to exit it.
by OGEnthusiast
0 subcomment
- Yet it's fine when American big tech cos track you? At least TikTok is being honest about it.
by rantingdemon
1 subcomments
- Will Pi-hole with good blocking lists remediate this?
- When can we finally make user tracking illegal?
- I even read that TikTok has its app listen to a port on localhost, and have websites run code that exfiltrates data this way (effectively bypassing privacy protections of your browser).
Oh wait no sorry, that was Meta. In both the Facebook and Instagram apps: https://cybersecuritynews.com/track-android-users-covertly/.
- You think an app blessed by the CCP isn't going to track you?
- duh
by renato_shira
1 subcomments
- [flagged]
by crawfordcomeaux
2 subcomments
- TikTok is now a Zionist operation being run by (former?) members of Mossad's Unit 8200, which is like the NSA's cybersecurity group. So monitoring everyone is literally the point of TikTok now. Meta, Google, Apple, and others are also participating in it. Silicon Valley not actively mobilizing against this shows how geeks are complicit with genocide and the systems that drive it.
- Don't have that brainrot engine on your phone - problem solved.
by SoftTalker
0 subcomment
- Ublock. Don't surf the web without it. And apps? Just avoid them whenever you can. Default assumption should be that they are spying on you.
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