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Tech Tok: Digital snooping crosses new limits
Hyderabad: This is something all of us have been through. We search for a camera, mobile phone or even a holiday destination, and sooner or later, there is an ad for the same that shows up on your browser or any other website that you open. Targeted advertisements aren’t new, but now Meta, which owns […]
Hyderabad: This is something all of us have been through. We search for a camera, mobile phone or even a holiday destination, and sooner or later, there is an ad for the same that shows up on your browser or any other website that you open.
Targeted advertisements aren’t new, but now Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, undoubtedly two social media platforms that most smartphone users have on their devices, is apparently taking this sort of digital snooping a step ahead.
This was revealed by a researcher, Felix Krause, who pointed out that if you visit a website you see on Facebook or Instagram, you are not redirected to your browser of choice but rather a custom in-app browser. It turns out that those browsers inject javascript code into each website visited, allowing Meta to potentially track you across websites, Krause claimed.
“The Instagram app injects their tracking code into every website shown, including when clicking on ads, enabling them to monitor all user interactions, like every button and link tapped, text selections, screenshots, as well as any form inputs, like passwords, addresses and credit card numbers,” he said.
His research focused on the iOS versions of Facebook and Instagram, since Apple allows users to opt in or out of app tracking when they first open an app, via its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) introduced in iOS 14.5. Meta has said that the injected tracking code obeyed users’ preferences on ATT, and that for purchases made through the in-app browser, they seek user consent to save payment information, “for the purposes of autofill”.
Krause said if the apps opened a preferred browser like Safari or Firefox, there would be no way to do a similar javascript injection on any secure site. By contrast, the approach now used by the Instagram and Facebook in-app browsers ‘works for any website, no matter whether it’s encrypted or not, he said, adding that Meta should not modify third-party websites. Will Meta listen?
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