Built-in Facebook and Instagram browsers can track you

Browsers Facebook And the Instagram are the ones available in this social networks Built into store or service profiles that allow you to open links to websites without having to leave the app. In this way, these applications can access all the movements made by the users and know their tastes and needs, depending on the type of browsing they do on these sites.

Recently the researcher and developer of the platform fast lineAnd the Felix Krausea report warning of the impact of these browsers on aggregate of users and set an example with iOS device owners.

According to the report, the Instagram and Facebook apps for Apple’s operating system feature a dedicated browser that allows you to visit third-party links and ads, instead of using the built-in Safari browser.

As the researcher points out, this practice was carried out by Goal It generates many risks for users, as it allows apps with these kinds of restrictions to track user interactions on third-party websites.

This way, these apps can access sensitive information, such as passwords, credit card numbers, or entered addresses, as well as screenshots and identify text.

How is the Facebook and Instagram tracking system?

In this regard, the analysis highlights that Instagram’s built-in browser is able to auto-complete user address and payment information. However, there is a legitimate reason for this feature, as this mechanism is in an external web browser or in the device’s operating system.

To implement this autocomplete, apps like Instagram and Facebook inject their own JavaScript code into every website they display to users of their platforms, including ads. This allows them to monitor every interaction with the page.

To come to this conclusion, Krause created a tool with which he was able to categorize all additional commands added to a website by the browser, as The Guardian offers.

After executing it in other applications and third-party browsers, where no changes were detected, the specialist detected up to 18 lines of code that Facebook and Instagram added in links to web pages that they view inside their own browser.

These lines of code are capable of scanning a user’s device for a cross-platform tracking set. If they don’t detect one installed, they activate Meta Pixel, a tracking tool that allows to monitor all user activity and create an accurate profile based on their interests.

On the other hand, the engineer also analyzed The WhatsAppalso owned by Goal. In this case, find out that the instant messaging system is able to open third-party links in Safari by default, unlike Facebook and Instagram.

_{Instagram also tracks your activities using your browser}

How to avoid tracking

To avoid this tracking, this report presents various access alternatives to these links. Primarily, it is suggested to use the web version of Facebook and Instagram from the browser of the mobile device, instead of installing the application of these services, available in the App Store, on the device.

The other option is to use apps, but when you open one of these links, select the option to open it in an external browser. This is located in the three dots icon at the top right of the interface.

The latter alternative requires another step, as the URL of the web page in question must be copied and pasted into a browser other than the one built into the application itself, as pointed out by Europa Press.