Meta Responds To Accusations Of Tracking Browsing Histories On Billions Of Android Devices
In case you're unfamiliar with this allegations, a group of security researchers reported that Meta is secretly monitoring the browsing activities of billions of Android users. The allegations claim that Meta's Android applications, such as Facebook and Instagram, listen on fixed local ports on the user's device. And when a user visits a website that uses the Meta Pixel script (which is embedded on millions of websites), the script secretly sends information such as their browsing history, cookies, and other metadata directly to the native apps, and this could be used to track users' behavior without their consent.
In what can be described as a response to the allegations, Meta has made changes to how its Meta Pixel operates. More recently, the researchers found that the Meta Pixel script has stopped sending requests to the local port and that the specific code used to carry out the tracking has largely been removed.
Meta's sly response could mean that it acknowledges that its actions were questionable, since there was no public documentation on the method Meta allegedly used to track browsing history and the technique allegedly circumvents key privacy measures on Android devices.
If what has been reported is accurate, this incident clearly violates Google's privacy policy for Android apps. It further aggravates privacy concerns and begs the question: What else has Meta tracked without user consent? Keep in mind, this is also coming at a time when Meta is reportedly working on a WhatsApp feature that will allow users to be identified by username instead of their private phone numbers.
