I created a brand new profile just for TikTok which i patched the login requirement out of. Before installing it i installed ProtonVPN into that profile as well. I don't think my real IP leaked at any point to TikTok, because i had enabled the block connections without VPN.

Phone language was set to US English and i also had disabled Allow Phone Calls and SMS in the Owner for this profile.

Despite all this, it instantly started to show a few videos in my native language.

Any ideas how did it figure out where i was?

    Xtreix the app may have determined the country code based on surrounding cell towers and or your phone's SIM card, use airplane mode to prevent your phone from connecting to cell towers and the app receiving the country code.

    I believe apps can get the SIM country code even when not connected to a network and in airplane mode. Can't remember where I heard that, so I could be mistaken.

        Probably9857

        It seems like all the info I can find is saying you do have to be connected to a network, so looking like I probably was mistaken about that.

          Probably9857 Apps can see the SIM country code. I remember seeing this some time ago:

          matchboxbananasynergy If you're not using airplane mode, yes. The same applies to cases where you're using a SIM card. Apps are able to access the SIM card's country code, which is how apps are able to "guess" your contry code when they ask for a phone number etc.

          As mentioned above, this may be eventually addressed and it's an open feature request, but it's currently working exactly as expected. In other words, nothing is "broken", there's just an open feature request to make it so apps can't necessarily do that. :) I hope that explains things further!

          https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/4331-apps-knowing-simnetwork-country-code-apps-sharing-accounts-between-themselves/11

                yore

                I know they can, but my question would be if they can see it even in airplane mode or if not connected to a mobile network?

                  yore I can disable my eSIM in settings. Do you think doing that paired with airplane mode would eliminate this?

                    I have made a new profile, disabled my sim and turned on airplane mode, and now it didn't show regional content.

                    Thank you guys.
                    Im lucky that TikTok is the kind of spyware to expose itself. I could have used it for a while without realizing that it knew my country if it didn't let me know.