Despite tracking restrictions rolled out last year by Apple, Meta has found a way to still track its users on Facebook and Instagram’s iOS apps. A fraud practice which is now worth a class action to the firm of Mark Zuckerberg.
Given Meta’s usual practices, the opposite would have been surprising. We learned in August that the firm circumvented the tracking restrictions deployed by Apple by organizing a tracking particularly developed by users of its Facebook and Instagram applications on iPhone and iPad.
To do this, Meta relies on the browser integrated into its services (launched by default when you click on a link in Instagram, for example) and monitors the slightest actions and gestures of users: clicks, keyboard entries , various interactions or text selections are scrutinized. This method allows Meta to collect a lot of information about its users, such as certain contact details, their passwords or even their banking information. All in complete contradiction with the policy ofApp Tracking Transparency (ATT) implemented by Apple with iOS 14.5. A policy based on the consent of the user which had already caused many frictions between Meta and Apple.
Users turn against Meta through class action
In the United States, the discovery of this alternative tracking method has led some users to band together to launch a class action against Meta. Filed last week in federal court in San Francisco, California, this class action accuses Meta of violating Apple’s ATT policy, but also US laws (state and federal) by collecting user data – without their consent – through its Facebook and Instagram applications.
The legal action in this case focuses on the use of this internal browser replacing, on the iPhone, the usual launch of Safari for opening links. This practice, discussed above, further allows Meta to inject tracking JavaScript code dubbed ” Meta Pixel in all displayed links and websites. ” This allows Meta to intercept, monitor and record its users’ interactions and communications with third parties, thereby providing Meta with data which it aggregates, analyzes and uses to increase its advertising revenue. “, details the complaint.
Contacted by MacRumors, Meta, for its part, claims to have designed its in-app browser in such a way as to respect the choices of its users in terms of privacy and tracking. ” These allegations are baseless and we will vigorously defend ourselves. We’ve designed our in-app browser to respect users’ privacy choices, including the use of data that may be used for ads. “, we read from a press release shared with the specialized site.
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