Accused of circumventing Apple’s browsing data privacy policy, Meta faces a new lawsuit.
New lawsuit for Mark Zuckerberg’s company. And once again, it is about the collection and management of personal data. Meta is indeed accused of having circumvented the protections of Apple devices thanks to the Facebook and Instagram applications, to continue to monitor the navigation of its users.
Meta again accused of harvesting undue browsing data
Since September 2020 and the release of iOS 14, Apple has made it much more difficult for third parties to track its users’ browsing. Its ATT policy (Application Tracking Transparency) indeed requires external applications to receive explicit consent to practice it, preventing any tracking otherwise. And Apple’s good reputation for managing its users’ information could legitimately suggest to them that this policy would be respected. It was without counting on Meta, which cannot boast of being so credible in the matter.
And, according to a class action lawsuit against the American giant, that has not been the case. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram is indeed accused of having circumvented, via these two applications, Apple’s policy in order to be able to continue to follow the navigation of users who have not given their consent.
Meta justifies itself in the name of user experience
It is to Félix Krause, researcher in data security and former engineer at Google, that we owe this discovery. He explains on his site that Facebook and Instagram, which have their own search engine included in the application, inject Javascript code into each web page visited. This code allows Meta to precisely follow the navigation and the slightest action thus carried out. Theoretically, Meta would even have access to the passwords and banking information of users who were unfortunate enough to use its applications.
For Meta, which does not dispute these revelations, this code is simply intended to offer a more personalized experience to its users, particularly in terms of targeted advertising. A classic response, given each time the company has to justify itself for this type of practice. And which, above all, openly circumvents the policy of Apple, which has not yet reacted at the time of writing this article. To avoid this, Krause therefore advises users to use Safari for any navigation outside of the two applications concerned.
At this point, it’s no longer an accident or an isolated mistake, and Mark Zuckerberg’s company is going to find it increasingly difficult to justify itself if the revelations continue (or rather, when they continue). ). The fines, however massive, which are inflicted on it repeatedly are apparently not enough to undermine the profitability of its economic model and force it to review its copy.
Sources: Bloomberg, krausefx, JDG
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