How social networks stalk you on the internet


Félix Krause, an Austrian engineer, demonstrated that applications like Facebook, Instagram or TikTok were able to collect your data when you click on links from their platforms.

What if your every move was spied on by social media? Félix Krause, an Austrian engineer, made some rather worrying discoveries about three of them: TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

An “in-house” browser that would collect sensitive data

In his blog article, the engineer explains that when you click on a link on one of the applications mentioned, you are automatically redirected to a so-called “home” browser. This is when the platform discreetly injects a “pixel”, a computer code supposed to “identify user preferences“. Only problem: by recording your actions, the application can have access to sensitive data, such as your passwords, and your personal or even banking information.

A user however noted that for TikTok, the search could be carried out via another browser such as Safari, even if it is not launched by default. This alternative therefore has the merit of existing, and this while the application developed by ByteDance is regularly singled out for its supposed links with the Chinese government, to which it is accused of providing the data of its users.

An observation that is not worth an accusation

“The fact that an application injects code into external websites does not mean that it engages in malicious practices. There is no way for us to know the full details of these collections, or how the data is transferred and used.“, said Felix Krause.

However, the engineer recommends using other social networks such as Twitter, YouTube or even Telegram, applications that do not resort to this type of practice.





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