Meta pauses mobile port tracking tech on Android after researchers cry foul
Security researchers say Meta and Yandex used native Android apps to listen on localhost ports, allowing them to link web browsing data to user identities and bypass typical privacy protections.
Following the disclosure, researchers observed that Meta’s Pixel script stopped sending data to localhost and that the tracking code was largely removed. The move may help Meta avoid scrutiny under Google Play policies, which prohibit covert data collection in apps.
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If you’re online, you’re generating a constant stream of information about yourself — sometimes voluntarily, sometimes unwittingly — that is assembled and used to craft your online experience. And generate wealth for data brokers. Meanwhile, designers and managers of the digital infrastructure on which the world depends are engaged in a never-ending effort to thwart attempts, by both criminal enterprises and state actors, to exploit vulnerabilities in those systems.
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