Here’s a surefire Tok-block.
While it’s no secret that TikTok is tracking its users’ activity, the video app is now being accused of monitoring people who aren’t even on the platform.
According to the BBC tech writer Thomas Germain, this shady data-harvesting campaign has seen TikTok gather data from websites regarding everything from disease diagnoses to mental health issues, essentially using them as pointer dogs to sniff out personal info.
“When I clicked a button on a form that said I was a cancer patient or a survivor, the website sent TikTok my email address along with those details,” said one anonymous user.
Meanwhile, Germain claimed that when they looked at fertility tests, a woman’s health firm passed data along to the platform.
This development follows the sale of the video platform to new owners — a consortium of Larry Ellison’s Oracle, private equity company Silver Lake, and the Emirati investment company MGX — as part of a deal orchestrated by US President Donald Trump that allowed the app to operate in the US.
Both officials within the Biden and Trump administrations claimed that TikTok presented a cybersecurity risk to the US and its citizens because of the prior Chinese owner, ByteDance, which will retain a 19.9% stake.
Ironically, TikTok now poses as much or more of a security risk, Fast Company reports. The answer lies in the way TikTok uses Pixels, images that are embedded in emails, web pages and digital ads in order to track user behavior so they can ostensibly optimize ad campaigns and/or tailor content.
While these surveillance tools have been around for some time, TikTok’s cyber-eye has grown to the point where it has pixels on some of the world’s top websites.
More frighteningly, following the ownership change last month, the platform imposed a new advertising system that allows them to display targeted adverts on other websites. To accommodate this shift, they revamped their pixel.
Disconnect investigated the new and improved tool, finding that it was “extremely invasive” and harvested data in some unusual ways, per the company’s chief tech officer, Patrick Johnson.
Specifically, the tracker went from informing companies if their ads were facilitating sales to helping these firms track users when they make a purchase outside of TikTok.
This expansion campaign means that TikTok’s pixel now amasses more data than before, even going as far as to intercept info sent to Google by websites, even though they didn’t explicitly give consent. As a result, users have a higher chance of becoming susceptible to digital threats.
“Algorithms can use this data to exploit you,” declared Peter Dolanjski, executive director of product at Privacy firm DuckDuckGo. “It could be coercing you to buy something, it could be political campaigns, it could be price discrimination.”
And, in a change from the ByteDance days, the app now collects GPS phone location data from those who enable “location services.”
TikTok reps balked at the accusation, claiming that it’s transparent about data-gathering policies, adding that pixels are an “industry standard” that are ubiquitous across social media platforms, including the BBC. They also noted that they have privacy tools that users can use to protect themselves.
To safeguard oneself, Germain recommends swapping out Google Chrome for more airtight browsers like DuckDuckGo or Brave, and installing tracker blockers like Privacy Badger.
Meanwhile, iPhone users can block TikTok’s access to location data by going to Settings, opening TikTok in the Apps section, clicking on location, and toggling location access to “never.”
Users can also prevent TikTok from monitoring behavior on third-party apps and websites using iOS’s App Tracking Transparency feature.
