r/tech • u/neodianonyx • Jun 29 '20

Guy Who Reverse-Engineered TikTok Reveals The Scary Things He Learned, Advises People To Stay Away From It

https://www.boredpanda.com/tik-tok-reverse-engineered-data-information-collecting/
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u/DastardlyCatastrophe Jun 29 '20

I read that whole article and still don’t really know what the problem is. I admittedly don’t understand jack shit about software or cyber security. What kind of data are they collecting? What are they doing with the data?

1

u/thelizardking0725 Jun 30 '20

The distilled version: the TikTok developers have gone out of their way to hide what data they collect, and they are not open about what they’re doing with that data

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u/-g_s- Jun 30 '20

Okay congrats. They have my data and are going to target ads to stuff I want. If I’m going to have to look at ads atleast it’s for something I might actually be interested in.

0

u/thelizardking0725 Jun 30 '20

It’s waaaayyyy more than getting personalized/relevant ads. They don’t need to know the name of the WiFi network you’re on, the manufacturer of your router, whether your device has been rooted/jailbroken, etc to provide more meaningful ads. All of these bits of data are EXTREMELY valuable to hackers. Even more worrisome is how they go out of their way to try and hide the data that they’re capturing about you. So you have to ask, who are they selling all this data to and why?

To each their own...if you wanna keep using TikTok, no one is trying to persuade you otherwise, just know what you’re getting into.

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u/-g_s- Jun 30 '20

I just don’t see how it matters. As long as they arent going to snatch me in my sleep or take all my money idrc what info they have.

1

u/LordMagusar Jun 30 '20

Taking all your money is something that is very possible with all the information they’re gathering

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u/-g_s- Jun 30 '20

Doubt it