In case anyone missed it, you probably shouldn't be using tiktok. That said, anyone surprised by this behavior is likely generally unaware of how monetization works on social media so carry on.

https://boredpanda.com/tik-tok-reve...

I love your tags

A Chinese app is a disguised surveillance tool. Surprise, surprise.

Regarding that, I just despise TikTok ever since I've been shown young children doing fortnite dances in front of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

@Homuncoolus Especially "tittok" 😄

Ok - This shit should just stop.

starting with: TikTok is shit. Like... really shit.

But what the Idiot Who reversed found.... Is in every Android app on the plant. Here is why:
1. They *need* your contact list to propagate thier app. Otherwise, there will be only one user of tiktok. You can block this by revoking the permissions.
2. The device info is used to identify crashes, and help the developers identify high impact errors in real time.
3. The "Download and execute" bit? It is from Ads. To be specific - Ads from Google. Srsly - to compare - "a browser can download random bits of JS, and execute! Run away!"

to Sum up: Chinese? Yes. Creepy borderline pedophile app? Yes. Malware? No.

If you want to read about a similar thing - read up on the camscanner app vs 2 idiots from kaspersky. Also - the plankton "malware" incident from 2011.

@magicMirror
It's more about how they're using the extra permissions they add and when/how they update the payloads, GPS and telemetry phoning home with no prior acknowledgement, etc etc. The behaviors are significantly more aggressive than is called for. Is it worse than Facebook? Probably not, but it's still bad behavior and I don't use Facebook either for similar reasons. Couple that with it's state-controlled parent company status and you have an actual threat similar to the skynet system China is field testing

And if that stuff is okay, then android devs have an ethics problem.

@SortOfTested Don't get me wrong here - I never said it was OK to collect the data, or sell it to a 3rd party like FB does.
The problem is that there is a lot of money in collecting this data. A lot. And everybody wants a piece if it, even if they have no fuken idea how to monitize it, or use it. So they collect, to inflate thier $-per-user value, when they get bought by FB. Or google. Or Apple.

But while this is going on - you can actually deny Android apps these permissions - stop contact sharing, location sharing, data access, and internet to any App you use....

Tiktok represents everything wrong with app development, society, and humanity in general
Why didn’t they remove it already !!

@Frederick fuck no.
I'm long done with all that crap.