TikTok is both a controversial and exillerating app. The company has created an addictive social media platform popular with millions of people worldwide. TikTok is one of the major social media platforms used by Americans, and a new report should have you worried about the continued use of the platform.
New research has shown that the TikTok iOS app opens web links within an in-app browser. This isn’t unusual, as many other social media apps do the same. It is annoying, though, and these apps do this to keep you on the app longer; if they send you to your default mobile browser, they might lose your eyes. Given the short attention span of most people these days, most see this as a convenience rather than a problem.
The research has shown that the TikTok in-app browser logs users’ keystrokes, including passwords, credit card information, banking information, addresses, personal details, and anything else you type while using the in-app browser. According to NotebookCheck, the company has confirmed that the keyloggers exist but has denied using the technology.
Two days ago, fastlane.tools founder Felix Krause published a follow-up to his August 10 article on iOS privacy. One week after he unveiled that Instagram and Facebook can track all the user’s actions that take place in their in-app browser, he discovered that the same thing happens with TikTok.
According to Krause, “TikTok iOS subscribes to every keystroke (text inputs) happening on third party websites rendered inside the TikTok app. This can include passwords, credit card information and other sensitive user data. (keypress and keydown). We can’t know what TikTok uses the subscription for, but from a technical perspective, this is the equivalent of installing a keylogger on third party websites.”
In addition to the above, he mentioned that TikTok iOS also detects every tap on-page elements such as buttons, links, images, sliders, and so on. The app uses a JavaScript function to get detailed information on the element clicked on by the user.
NotebookCheck
Keylogging is not a welcome behavior for any app to perform, and the fact that TikTok is using the software should concern everyone. We would recommend you delete and discontinue the use of the app, but we know that most will not. You might be able to mitigate the information TikTok collects by opening web links in your mobile browser and discontinuing the use of the in-app browser.
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