TikTok internet usage

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rb99

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#312554 27-Apr-2024 08:38

In a bored moment I logged into the UDM and came across this usage by TikTok (happening overnight / this morning). As I happened across it, I don't know if its a one off or regular thing. Any idea what its up to ?

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

MikeFly

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#3223251 27-Apr-2024 08:51

Just reporting back to Beijing.

rb99

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#3223257 27-Apr-2024 09:04

Thats what I naturally assumed, except its mostly downloads...

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

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Chills

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#3223271 27-Apr-2024 09:51

This is all within 4 seconds - They make lots of pull requests to their multiple servers around the world. I assume to download the videos as you scroll so it's seamless but it is a lot and a lot of requests.

ezbee

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#3223285 27-Apr-2024 11:13

Reminds me of early days of computing swatting TSRs,
and programs that wanted to dial up when they should not.

These days its harder.

Maybe they are using you for cloud storage.
The outgoing activity being when app is fully active and being used so masked ?

Preloading advertising, or something else ?

The 'ghost in the machine' is generating clicks for you, for that extra advertising revenue ?

Fun battery stress test for your mobile device ?

Constant updating also brings the uncertainty of what was downloaded in the first place is not what you end up with over time.
To be secure you do need updates, a catch 22 if trust in updater changes.

rb99

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#3223344 27-Apr-2024 12:46

I think its stopped now. Roughly 11.40pm to 11.40am. Weird times, though maybe not for overseas time somewhere. Maybe I'll block and see who complains...

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

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#3223345 27-Apr-2024 12:56

Interestingly (or maybe its irrelevant, I dunno), this seems to have happened once before, around 18th April, and then, as now, there's a few messages from the router with messages saying (more or less), 'Multiple devices are using the same IP address:XXX.XXX.X.XX. Please check each device's configuration to ensure none are communicating with a rogue DHCP server.'

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

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Jase2985

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#3223414 27-Apr-2024 16:15

i have thousands of DNS requests for tiktok services from about 6pm to 3am most nights, appears to be about 13k entries in the last 26 hours

Example below

2024-04-26 21:14:57 pull-flv-f64-sg01.tiktokcdn.com

2024-04-26 21:14:57 pull-w5-sg01.ttlivecdn.com

2024-04-26 21:14:57 pull-flv-l77-tt02.eu.tiktokcdn.com

2024-04-26 21:14:57 push-rtmp-l77-sg01.tiktokcdn.com

2024-04-26 21:14:57 pull-f5-gcp01.tiktokcdn.com

2024-04-26 21:14:57 pull-flv-f77-va01.fcdn.eu.tiktokcdn.com

2024-04-26 21:14:57 pull-cmaf-f16-tt03.fcdn.us.tiktokcdn.com

2024-04-26 21:14:57 pull-o5-gcp01.tiktokcdn.com

2024-04-26 21:14:57 pull-flv-f1-sg01.tiktokcdn.com

rb99

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#3223531 27-Apr-2024 18:00

...maybe America isn't quite so paranoid about it as people think then...

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

MadEngineer

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#3223582 28-Apr-2024 07:31

Chills:

This is all within 4 seconds - They make lots of pull requests to their multiple servers around the world. I assume to download the videos as you scroll so it's seamless but it is a lot and a lot of requests.

I assume this too - preloading videos for caching or fast loads but you never know.

It’s an app that features amongst the high users in our company and staff are genuinely surprised at how much data the app is using even when they thought they were only using it on wifi. It gets an instant delete.

Get rid of it.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

rb99

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#3224039 29-Apr-2024 11:07

'Get rid of it.'

I've blocked it and no-ones yet complained, but can't rid of it off other family members phones.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99