Social media sites have received considerable negative criticism recently, owing largely to the huge scope of their data harvesting. Meta, the parent corporation of Facebook and Instagram, has now increased the stakes.
Meta has purportedly devised a mechanism to know everything you do on external websites accessed through its apps, in addition to tracking every step you make on its apps. Why is it going to such trouble? Is there a way to avoid this monitoring? ‘Injecting’ code that will follow you Meta has its own in-app browser that works on Facebook, Instagram, and any website you might visit from any of these apps.
Felix Krause, an ex-Google engineer, and privacy researcher have uncovered that this proprietary browser contains additional computer code. Krause created a program that discovered Instagram and Facebook was adding up to 18 lines of code to websites browsed using Meta’s in-app browsers.
This “code injection” enables user tracking and circumvents tracking limits in browsers such as Chrome and Safari. It enables Meta to collect sensitive user data such as “every button and link tapped, text selections, screenshots, as well as any form inputs, such as passwords, addresses, and credit card details.”
On August 10, Krause released his findings online, including code samples.
In response, Meta has stated that it will not conduct anything that consumers did not consent to. According to a Meta representative, “we designed this code on purpose to honor people’s [Ask to track] preferences on our platforms.” We can utilize the code to aggregate user data before using it for targeted advertising or measurement.
The “code” in the case is pcm.js, which is software that aggregates a user’s browsing behaviors. According to Meta, the script is added based on whether users have provided consent – and the information gathered is only used for advertising purposes.
So, is it behaving ethically? The corporation has done homework by telling customers of its intention to collect a broader range of data. However, it went short of explaining the full ramifications of doing so.
People may consent to track broadly, but “informed” consent involves complete knowledge of the potential repercussions. In this example, visitors were not expressly informed that their activities on other websites could be tracked by code injection.
Why is Meta behaving this way? The core commodity of Meta’s business model is data. The amount of information Meta may capture by injecting a tracking code into third-party websites opened through Instagram and Facebook apps is enormous.
At the same time, Meta’s economic model is under assault, and recent events can offer light on why this is happening in the first place.
It all comes down to the fact that Apple (owner of the Safari browser), Google (owner of Chrome), and the Firefox browser are all aggressively limiting Meta’s capacity to collect data.
Last year, Apple’s iOS 14.5 update included a requirement that all apps hosted on the Apple app store need explicit permission from consumers to track and collect data across apps owned by other firms.
According to Meta, this single iPhone alert costs the Facebook company $10 billion (approximately Rs. 79,400 crores) per year.
Apple’s Safari browser also has a default setting that prevents all third-party “cookies” from being accepted. These are small pieces of tracking code that websites deposit on your computer and use to inform the website’s owner about your visit.
Third-party cookies will likewise be phased out by Google in the near future. To prevent so-called cross-page tracking, Firefox just announced “complete cookie protection.”
In other words, Meta is bordered by browsers that impose limits on substantial user data collection. Its response was to develop its own browser that works around these limitations.
How can I protect myself? On the plus side, people who are concerned about their privacy have some options.
The simplest approach to prevent Meta from tracking your external actions via its in-app browser is to just not use it; instead, open online pages in a trusted browser of choices such as Safari, Chrome, or Firefox (via the screen shown below).
If you are unable to locate this screen option, manually copy and paste the URL address into a trusted browser.
Another method is to use a browser to visit the social media platforms. Instead of using the Instagram or Facebook apps, go to the websites by typing their URLs into the search box of your preferred browser. This should also address the tracking issue.
I’m not advocating you abandon Facebook or Instagram entirely. However, we should all be aware that our internet travels and usage habits may be meticulously logged and used in ways we are unaware of. Remember, if the service is free on the Internet, you are most likely the product.
