Last Updated on: 3rd July 2023, 11:37 am
TikTok Tracks Every Movement You Make On The Internet
After Google, Facebook and Instagram, it is TikTok’s turn to become a notorious spy app. A new study by software researcher Felix Krause shows that TikTok can monitor your activity even when you access other websites through the app.
Krause is the founder of the app testing company Fastlane, which was acquired by Google five years ago. Forbes first shared the researcher’s findings.
How Does This TikTok Algorithm Work?
The study was published on Thursday and shows that TikTok can insert a code on visited websites via a link in the app. The code modifies websites to allow for monitoring since they open in the app’s browser instead of Chrome or Safari.
This allows the Chinese app to monitor keystrokes and clicks on the website. TikTok could easily be used to steal personal information like credit card numbers and passwords.
Krause commented on his results by saying:
It was an active decision that the company made. This is a non-trivial engineering task and does not happen accidentally or accidentally.
TikTok didn’t respond to a request for comment but confirmed to Forbes that this code exists in TikTok’s built-in browser. However, the spokesperson also said the app does not use the code to track people across the internet.
Also Read: TikTok going to remove videos that violate community guidelines automatically
Like other platforms, we use an in-app browser to provide the best user experience, but the relevant JavaScript code is only used for debugging, troubleshooting, and monitoring the performance of that experience, such as checking how fast a page loads fails.
According to TikTok, this code is part of a third-party software development kit (SDK) and contains functionality that TikTok does not use.
Also Read: 7 Tips on How to go viral on TikTok in 2022
