New research shows that most apps don't use the smartphone's default web browser to open links, potentially bypassing the operating system's security and privacy features.
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Security researcher Felix Krause has revealed that Meta’s Instagram and Facebook apps on iOS add some JavaScript code to third-party websites when you visit them using the apps’ custom in-app browsers. In-app browsers allow people to visit websites without leaving their apps. The inserted code allows the apps to potentially track all of your interactions with third-party websites, bypassing iOS’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature. Apple added ATT specifically to force app developers to get people’s consent before tracking data generated by third parties.
“Instagram’s workaround is not surprising,” Lior Yaari, CEO and co-founder of cybersecurity startup Grip Security, told Lifewire via email. “Apple’s restrictions threaten the core of the company’s business model, so it was a matter of adapting [to] survive.”
Meta has openly admitted that the ATT feature cost the company approximately $10 billion a year in advertising revenue.
