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I am considering installing TikTok. Any suggestion on how to make it less privacy-invasive?

3 years ago by wit to c/privacyguides

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6214098

I want to follow some people on tiktok, for the content they put out. I am, however, a somewhat privacy-minded person. Any suggestion on how to make TikTok less privacy-invasive? Some DNS app?

I am on Android, not rooted.

breadsmasher 90 points 3 years ago
  1. Tiktok
  2. Privacy

You can choose only one

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jet 55 points 3 years ago

Don't install an app you don't trust. There's no private way to do it.

TikTok lets you view people via the web browser, just bookmark them, and check up on them periodically. I don't know if you could get an RSS feed for them, might be possible.

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pe1uca 12 points 3 years ago

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jet 17 points 3 years ago

Also it looks like you can get an RSS feed

https://rss.app/...

So to the original posters question, there's no need to install the app, just an RSS reader.

I just checked, TikTok has a progressive web app! You can just install the progressive web app, and keep all of the privacy provisions of your browser. So I think that's the good middle ground here

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mark 5 points 3 years ago

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4am 31 points 3 years ago

Blocked at the firewall at my place.

Just don’t. If you want TikTok content then look for YouTube compilations or reposts (do shorts work on Piped?)

TikTok is one of the most privacy-invasive apps ever created, and that’s before even considering the data they get from watching what videos you watch/like. They harvest literally everything they can from your phone.

I guess if you run it in a VM on an Android emulator with a VPN and strict vlan/firewall rules using an email address you created specifically for it, but even then it doesn’t seem worth it.

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newthrowaway20 22 points 3 years ago

Yeah good luck with that. Personally, no content is worth that trade off to me.

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doggy 21 points 3 years ago

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laylawashere44 14 points 3 years ago

I mean just use YT shorts, 99% of TikTok creators post on YouTube anyways because you get paid way more.

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EmhyrVarEmreis 10 points 3 years ago

Use a private DNS and patch the app with revanced. Don't use your primary email or phone and never give it permission to access your contacts.

That's only if you really want to install it.

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joseangel 10 points 3 years ago

I'd recommend the Revanced version (is a fork that removed ads and blatant trackers). But it doesn't stop Tik Tok from tracking what you see. For example, Facebook, technically it doesn't have third party tracker, because the app itself is a tracker.

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Knitwear 7 points 3 years ago

I don't know if this is dumb or not but I have it installed on an old phone with nothing else installed on it and just use it on the home WiFi sometimes.

Another plus being that I have to intentionally get the phone and intentionally turn it on to use the awful-but-intriguing-app.

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Wander 5 points 3 years ago

Use insular to install it on your work profile

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DengueDucky 3 points 3 years ago

Shelter + Shizuku + App Ops

Shelter will put it in a work profile.

Shizuku and App Ops work together to give you more control over app permissions. You can restrict a lot this way.

Granted, that won't stop the normal data collection via your IP address that occurs as a result of browsing their content.

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