DIGITAL LIFE

Meta and TikTok are spying on you

Recently, the company Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been mainly concerned with spying on users and collecting data on a large scale. But others are not blameless either, and now the popular TikTok is being investigated on a massive scale. He may know more about you than you think and what you're willing to admit.

The latest data collection scandal concerns the iOS operating system and your browser, or when you open one of the TikTok or Instagram apps in the browser instead of the fixed client. Expert Felix Krause dissected this issue in more detail on the KrauseFX website.

This report(https://krausefx.com/blog/announcing-inappbrowsercom-see-what-javascript-commands-get-executed-in-an-in-app-browser) shows how TikTok and Instagram can use JavaScript to display various sensitive data when opened in a browser. In addition to, for example, an address, it can collect various passwords or even information about your payment cards. It probably goes without saying that this happens without users' consent.

Using www.inappbrowser.com you can find out which scripts are running in the background when various applications are running in the browser. You just need to open the app you want to check and share the mentioned link somewhere (like in a private message to a friend). From this message, just click on the link and you will find out which scripts are running in the background of this or that application.

Krause has been dealing with the problem of spying through apps open in the browser for a long time and has mostly relied on TikTok. According to him, this network can, for example, record keystrokes or collect text input when opened in a browser. However, a spokesperson for the social network objected to this, saying that these codes are used for debugging, not spying.

In-browser subscription usually triggered when you click on a URL address in the app. While these browsers are primarily based on Safari WebKit for iOS, developers can easily customize them to run their JavaScript. And with your help, they can monitor your activity without the necessary consent, which will certainly not please everyone.

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