So I’ve been warning people to not use the tumblr live feature and i had this discussion in the notes of one of the people i warned
said person already used live themselves and was not aware of what all TumblrLive’s partner MEETME collects with its feature and i wanted to take the time to make a post going over the privacy policy for anyone who is interested
for the first part here MEETME talks about how creating an account (downloading) (or having a tumblr account that auto updated to include the tumblr live feature (which is a vast majority of the tumblr mobile population in the US rn)) automatically makes any information they collect visible to any of the partners they have
the three partners mentioned there Skout Flurv and Boy Ahoy are all dating sites that promote primarily their location tracking fuck all knows what they want with your live data most likely they want to advertise singles near you??? but MEETME’s other current partners are apps like PlentyfFish Zoosk Chispa and Badoo which is Match.com and Bumble
the main important parts to notice from section ii of the privacy policy is the location information limit mobile ad tracking and do not track signals the rest of the section mainly puts the onus of revealing private information that can be used maliciously on the user ie. don’t share your password say your full name in a live video where you live etc.
as far as the location information goes what its saying here is that they collect the location information when you first register for tumblr live when you first log in and whenever your phone is on even if youre not using tumblr live
what does it use this information for??? well advertising purposes of course!!!
now they try to get around saying they dont track your location or share it with other users by using this word precise several times now what that means is they have a rough geotag of your location
(your ip address they dont say here its your ip address but in later parts of the document they do in fact say they collect your ip address and if you want an idea how close an ip address can get to your exact location enter your ip address in google maps sometime)
theyre being intentionally vague about that so when you see on the live tab something that says near you you could probably not follow that exactly to said persons house but you can damn well be you will at the very least find their city
heres a reminder to all of you who havent most phones now bury in the settings an option to disable adID do it now!!! but remember that TumblrLive can still use all other information they gather they do not at all process do not track signals so you arent safe there and what data would that be that they can collect other than your location and adID??? glad you asked!!!
this is a non exhaustive list which means there is DEFINITELY other data they collect about and from you
so they collect:
your email and phone number
any info in your tumblr bio
any metadata connected to any photo youve ever uploaded
adID
ip address
cookies and beacon
which devices you use
which features you use
which pages you visit
which chats you use
anything in your private chats or posts
anything from any connected social media accounts
how well ads are doing
what youre interested in
and in some cases even your biometric information
and what do they do with this information???
ads of course
and to give anything they want to cops :)
i dont make this post in order to like ruin peoples fun when it comes to this new feature or to try to talk down to anyone or make anyone feel stupid or anything im not here to make fun of people or belittle anyone but i think its real fucking important people know what privacy rights they are forfeiting by having their phone on right now with this new feature
also everyone please feel free to give a kind fuck you to tumblrs current ceo @photomatt
TLDR: DONT USE TUMBLR LIVE
This is a lot of text just to tell you the main thing you can do is DONT use Live.
BUT YOU CAN DO MORE. YOU CAN BLOCK ITS CONNECTIONS FROM YOUR PHONE ENTIRELY.
Step 1) Install a DNS-based adblocker if you don’t have one. The best one available on Android and iOS is Blokada. It’s free to use and straightforward to set up.
Step 2) Block any domains that look related to Tumblr Live. So far I’ve blocked:
api.gateway.tumblr-live.com
auth.gateway.tumblr-live.com
tmg-stream.gateway.tumblr-live.com
video-api.gateway.tumblr-live.com
video-live.gateway.tumblr-live.com
assets.video.tumblr-live.com
But if you see any others that look suspicious, block them too!
Now you’ll no longer see those tumblr live ads in between posts, and if you go to the Tumblr Live tab, it will simply show nothing!
I see there’s some confusion, so let me clarify:
You want to install Blokada 5, which is free. If the first thing you see on Blokada.org is “Cloud” or “Plus,” you need to scroll the page.
“Blokada 6” is their set of premium cloud-security and VPN apps, which require a subscription. These are not needed to get system-wide adblocking on your phone!
staff literally took these images down and deleted op’s account like within the last few hours I’ve seen this post multiple times today with OP still active and the images still there
LMFAO the images were literally just part of the terms of service highlighted. Staff is so mad.
normalize reading a book without caring if the spine breaks, folded cover, misspelled annotations and just ruining the book completely as a form of art
What she means: the average age of conception over the past 250k years is apparently 26.9. Let’s round it down to 25. Think of your birth mother. Hold her hand. Imagine her holding hands with her mother. Within 4 people, you’re back in time 100 years, and it’s an intimate family dinner. Just after WWI. Add another 16 people, a small party of 20, and you’re in the 1500s. Double it, twice, and you’re at 80 people. Your family would fill a restaurant, and you’re at the height of the Roman empire. At 100 people, Confucius is alive but Socrates has not yet been born. 100 people. That’s a medium sized wedding. A small lecture theatre or concert. 200 people, probably the biggest party i could ever hope to host, takes you back 5000 years. The guests at your soirée of parents would be contemporaries of the Egyptian and Indus Valley civilisations, although you’d probably be too busy fixing drinks and nibbles to talk to all of them. Just imagine it. 200 of you. That’s all it takes to get back 5,000 years. And we could go further. 1000 people, a decent sized concert, a large high school, and we’re at the end of the last ice age. Your ancestors are comparing their pink floyd vinyl with music played on instruments carved from wood or bones of long vanished species. Wander through the crowd. See your own features and phrases and gestures refract out like a kaleidoscope. What would they make of you? What do you make of them? Why does it feel so unfair that even that first 100 years –that small family dinner of four–is out of your grasp? Maybe it’s because questions of spatial distance have become negligible to us now. why, oh why, does time hold out against us so stubbornly
