I want to see what TikTok is about but also want to retain some privacy. If its on F-droid, playstore or as a APK I don’t mind.
One way to limit it is to use something like Blokada or NetGuard apps that blocks Ads and trackers.
While I may not have provided the answer to your question, I would like to supplement the privacy part of it aptly, because I am tired of the unspoken Western Big Tech apologia. TikTok OBJECTIVELY collects far lesser data than Big Tech apps and services, according to reports from 2 reputed data collection analysis companies. Moreover, the below assumes you have an account, which is not even needed to use TikTok, unlike Instagram or Snapchat.
https://clario.co/blog/which-company-uses-most-data/ https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/insights/info-tech-companies-collecting-from-you
One of the key important aspects of threat modelling for your desired privacy is the acceptance of facts instead of false nationalist opinions.
Though I am with you in hating Western Big Tech apologia, I don’t agree with this point overall. Even the sources you linked show that TikTok collects an ungodly amount of data on its users. The Clario study shows that it’s in 6th place… is being lower than Facebook and Instagram supposed to be an accomplishment? And it’s much higher than Twitter and Zoom, which is definitely not a good thing.
I do not think you understand how TikTok is treated compared to Facebook and the likes amongst biased Westerners. Hell even in India here, it is banned for no reason other than political posturing. For some reason, TikTok activates Sinophobia, but discussion about Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat (which collect incomparably more data and latter 2 unusable from browser) is good manners.
Go search “TikTok” on r/privacy and observe comments on every single post there. Then, compare my above comment to all of those. Then, read the below stuff. Then tell me if you notice something.
From a very, very old comment I made once on reddit:
The sentiment of a lot of Westerners across reddit is like this, and I strictly feel that this is very unfair, because Western companies do not get the same treatment and bashing. Primarily because 70% of reddit is used by US, Canada, UK and West Europe. I also observe Sinophobic comments in general, plenty of which I have avoided on this very post of mine to not ruin my credibility as someone who is helping a lot of people, giving a lot of people hope for attaining privacy.
I am from India, so being accused of being a pro-China Chinese citizen does not work. It is all rational thinking. I have been trapped myself in the heat of discussions plenty times, but that has helped me mature thankfully.
Why do I think sentiment is Sinophobic? Because political and partisan arguments start to be used instantly on any post that even mentions any Chinese technology company in good or bad light or even no light, and then it becomes whataboutism, and then inception of whataboutism, strawman arguments, logical fallacies, bashing, flaming, trolling, baiting… you know the drill. And that becomes a mess, most of what reddit sadly is.
We need to learn to be rational and not have nationalistic prejudices when talking about technology, because when one cites Chinese surveillance law, they also need to cite US Cloud Act and Patriot Act that do the exact same thing for ages. Most countries are doing the same thing, and we need to objectively analyse every piece of technology when sensitive topic like privacy (virtual or real) is discussed, instead of baiting and citing wrong sources to prove oneself right.
It’s a web but (proxitok)[https://github.com/pablouser1/ProxiTok] is there
Finally! Huge thanks!
For some reason this isn’t shown as a hyperlink, eventhough the syntax for it looks correct
But it is, in fact, incorrect. Square brackets go first for the name, and then regular brackets for the URL. It’s easy to get them mixed up, though.
You can always just look on Youtube for videos from tiktok. People always post videos from tiktok on Youtube. There is also videos on reddit from tiktok.
That is a horrible solution. If you do that you end up getting the most surface level understanding of what tiktok is. I know, because I have used both tiktok and searching for tiktok on youtube.
Don’t use tiktok, it’s really bad for your privacy, a super addictive app. The main point is to just watch recommended videos rather than searching, which makes it more like TV. It also censors content, and most of what you’ll find there is actually bad. The app is proprietary, therefore making a different client is hard. (Newpipe for example doesn’t recommend videos to you that aren’t in your list, but tiktok’s recommendation algorithm can’t be done this way. Anyway, better not to get started, it will just waste your time.
Horrible answer. I can see you haven’t tried it just based on your comment. Also, you didn’t even answer the question.
Understand me right, tiktok is surveillance just like youtube, so it’s comparatively bad as youtube. It is centralized, it heavily relies on algorithms.
However, there is nothing wrong with the content. I have learnt a lot from using tiktok. In particular, I have received the perspective of marginalized people. The creators compete for delivering the most concise arguments.
Additionally, the tools to create videos are great. It uses elements of creative commons. Using stitching for creating debates, dueting for showing solidarity. Adding wise words from other creators on top of your juggling videos.
We should take inspiration from tiktok from what it does right. And to see that people reduce this platform to only it’s cons makes me infuriated because it does a hell of a lot right.
We should take inspiration from tiktok from what it does right.
I agree with this. If anyone’s interested to work on a tiktok replacement, let’s find a way to join up and work on making these various right things work in a privacy-respecting, fun, and FOSS set of projects. @libre_warrior@lemmy.ml are you aware of any good rallying points? A new community perhaps or existing software project?
If this was Reddit you would be blasted with CIA propaganda and hinted to prefer Instagram and Twitter.
