https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2022/08/18/tiktok-meta-can-see-user-behavior-on-in-app-browsers-according-to-research?utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew&mid=c172d1a8a7fc2bf4d5be83724468c6c1
Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have the ability to track interactions like searches, clicks, screenshots, and “form inputs” (like passwords and credit card numbers) within what’s called an in-app browser, according to tech researcher Felix Krause.
He followed up that research this week, finding that TikTok’s in-app browser appears to have the ability to monitor “all keyboard inputs” including “every tap on any button, link, image, or other component rendered” on the in-app browser. TikTok confirmed to Forbes that “those features exist in the code,” but said that it is not using them.
Bad actors could take advantage of the access—they could insert their own ads or change content, like rewriting headlines in a news article, Krause noted.
Basically, companies like Meta and TikTok can inject JavaScript into every website that loads within their in-app browsers. Once it loads, they can then collect some information about what the user does on that webpage.