How TikTok’s Algorithm Figures You Out | WSJ

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The Wall Street Journal created dozens of automated accounts that watched hundreds of thousands of videos to reveal how the the TikTok algorithm knows you so well.

A Wall Street Journal investigation found that TikTok only needs one important piece of information to figure out what you want: the amount of time you linger over a piece of content. Every second you hesitate or rewatch, the app is tracking you.

Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann/The Wall Street Journal

WSJ video investigations use visual evidence to reveal the truth behind the most important stories of the day.

Inside TikTok’s Highly Secretive Algorithm
This WSJ video investigation reveals how the video-centric social network is so good at figuring out interests you never expressly tell it.

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50 COMMENTS

  11. A guess: when you sign up for a TikTok account, each user is assigned a random baseline based on age and IP location. That is, the model uses a poisson point process model that assigns each user a random covariate vector which has a normalized coefficient. This covariate vector correlates to the coefficient of each video's covariate vector. Success in the algorithm, then, is defined as narrowing the range of the user's experience on TikTok so that each video use is within the maximum parameters of the covariate vector. This is done by a recursive algorithm that randomly assigns videos based on what the users watches and stops to look at it. The random process of selecting videos, then, should be narrowed and correlated with the coefficient of the covariate vector. (This means, I think, each video needs an enormous amount of data on how it relates to each other video in this correlation matrix. This is the key — not the algorithm — and I'm not sure how TikTok does it well enough to insure accurate results.)

  12. This is a respectable piece. Should this topic interest you, a compatible book would serve you well. "Game Theory and the Pursuit of Algorithmic Fairness" by Jack Frostwell

  13. Why's the media so negative about something hugely successful? The BUSINESS is to put ads in front of people. They put ads in front of you by interspersing them with the content you want to watch. It knows what you want to watch very well and hooks you and shows you more ads. The media are saying TikTok is too successful.

  17. If americans study harder they will be able to understand how algorithm works. Tik tok is like yt, fb or insta….. except tik tok is more useful and efficience for social media influencers. 😂

  20. My question is this:
    Can tiktok track me, profile me, figure me out or whatever if i sometimes watch the shorts on yt from tiktok? I always wondered if that is possible. I'd like to know because if that is the case, i'll stop watching them effective immediately. I dont use tiktok at all, never cared for it never will but these shorts originating from tiktok and posted on yt are something i am worried about in terms of everything profiling, tracking and the likes
    Thanks for whatever feedback you can provide pertaining to my question.

  22. politicians talking about youtube/instagram/facebook/twitter: thanks for the paid vacation guys!

    politicians talking about tiktok: hOw dOeS iT sAvE uSeR nAmE tHo????

  23. This study that the Wall Street Journal did is flawed. They used bots not real human beings. Tick-tock also listens to your conversations and hears the words you speak and it also follows and trace is what you do on other apps to get its algorithm. Yes what it shows in this is partially what it does but it does much more. Save your soul and remove TikTok from your app and your phone forever

  28. This is a small example of why social media was designed to control and figure us out… for the benefit of big brother! Our government! They’re good and a lot of us are blind to the reality of what’s really going on. Yet, we continue to let us get examined, used for scientific purposes that control us and keep us from empowering ourselves and being successful or living a simple life. We are being manipulated! Why do you think tik tok, instagram, facebook, snap chat.. ect! Why do you think it’s free? Everything else I. The net they charge for but these apps they don’t! They know where we’re at, where we went, who your with, what you like and influence us to go to certain places, track us, get us to spend money, they are drawing us in! All around! There’s so much more they benefit from us and we’re not seeing it! It’s crazy, beyond crazy but 100% it’s real!

  31. Recently, I checked my phone for battery use. The highest was Tiktok! I NEVER use it, and I did not install to app on purpose (I probably clicked something by mistake on twitter). Seems to me tiktok is gathering info even when you are not using it. I did scroll tiktok for about an hour a couple of years ago on my browser on my laptop. I decided it was going to be too distracting for me, so I just didn't do it. I did not knowingly install it on my phone, and never opened the app on my phone!

  39. This is all nonsense. The advertising industry and the church already knows and uses the stuff TiK Tok is uncovering. Even govt worldwide have been using this stuff.

    My prediction? After watching Tik Tok, I'm firmly believe then Tik Tok will be a short-lived in social media.

    I also believe the US Govt is trying to make trouble on China.

  40. Tic Toc is nothing more then a Communist Chinese INFORMATION COLLECTION TOOL.

    Anyone that can't understand this is lying, Communist, or as smart as a ROCK.

    GET IT COMPLETELY OUT OF AMERICA

    AND MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANY AMERICAN TO ACCESS IT, EVER.

    Next problem and Danger.

    Pokeman Go.

    It can target anywhere and everywhere at every elevation instantaneously.

    A perfect instrument for war uses, for anyone that has access to its programming and data..

    IT'S ALSO TO DANGEROUS TO EXIST IN THE WRONG HANDS ..

  49. I say again, the CCP is the SINGLE biggest threat to the planet.

    * From their dark fleets overfishing and plundering international waters,

    * to their voracious appetite for shark fins, rhino horns and elephant tusks and the accompanying wildlife trafficking in everything from indigenous cacti to all sorts of birds and reptiles,

    * to the mineral exploitation and military applications in Antarctica – which are forbidden,

    * to their colonisation of Africa (under the BS guise of "investment") whereby they are getting African nations into unbelievable debt to a sovereign nation that these countries will NEVER be able to get out of poverty,

    * to the not-so-subtle threat to invade Taiwan and wish to dominate and bully most south East Asian countries

    * to the shocking environmental and human rights abuses within China – the Uyghurs and Tibetan cultures are being destroyed, and, this is a country that does not have ONE animal rights law at all; if it moves, they eat it.

    * to the digital hacker unit within the Army that targets Western institutions,

    * to the Chinese spies pretending to be students at Western and American universities stealing scientific data.

    * to the spread of HUAWEI and the spying and data gathering being directed by the CCP.

    * And the Tik Tok psychological war on the West, wherein they are deliberately destroying the next generation with the depravity of Tik Tok masquerading as content.

    China is out to destroy the West and America and it is doing so on so many fronts. It has an avowed mission statement to destroy the West and become the world's only Super Power.

    And sadly, they are winning the war and destroying the West because too many Americans fail to, and refuse to see the nefarious hand of the CCP behind this vile App – get it now, the Chinese COMMUNIST Party controls Tik Tok.

    And I truly do not give a toss if this comment is racist or xenophobic or insulting to the Chinese in any way. I don't like the CCP and I don't trust them at all. I don't care, because most Chinese are behind their evil government's ambitions,

    The evidence speaks for itself, there are two versions of Tik Tok and the absolute filth and mind-numbingly stupid, inane, vulgar, destructive content the West see is totally different to what the CCP allows for their population.

    That's the in-your-face clue, wake up America and the West and ban this App before it's too late.

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