Here’s How TikTok Silently Monitors Your Web Activity

Keystroke logging is one of the most widely abused techniques for stealing sensitive information, which makes one wonder why a social media app like TikTok is using that code for its in-app web browser. Aside from keystroke tracking, TikTok’s in-app browser is also capable of recording all on-screen input. The app is capable of recording each image you click, each button you tap, and each URL you interact with in the TikTok web browser.

All that is done using a custom JavaScript function. TikTok representatives have denied allegations of tracking users but admit that the JavaScript code for the aforementioned activities is indeed a part of the in-app browser experience. However, the explanation for why those questionable features are bundled with its in-app web browser sounds rather odd. 

In an official statement shared with Forbes, a TikTok spokesperson mentioned that the controversial JavaScript code is there for “debugging, troubleshooting and performance monitoring” of the web experience offered by the in-app browser. 

It is worth noting here that Krause doesn’t claim he’s found evidence that TikTok is abusing the feature to track users, nor proof of if that valuable data is shared with third parties. At the same time, as Krause told Forbes, “this does not happen by mistake or randomly.”