Research co-led by IMDEA Networks discovers a privacy abuse involving Meta and Yandex bridging persistent identifiers to browsing histories - IMDEA Networks
networks.imdea.org
An international research collaboration between IMDEA Networks’ Internet Analytics Group, headed by Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez, Prof. Gunes Acar (Radboud University, NL), and Tim Vlummens (KU Leuven, Belgium), has recently uncovered a potential privacy abuse involving Meta and the Russian tech giant Yandex. They found that native Android apps – including Facebook, Instagram, and several Yandex apps...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35972832

Native Android apps – including Facebook, Instagram, and several Yandex apps such as Maps, Navi, Browser, and Search – silently listen on fixed local ports on mobile devices to de-anonymize users’ browsing habits without consent, says a report published by a team of researchers from Spain-based IMDEA Networks Internet Analytics Group, and Dutch Radboud University.

Here is the technical report: https://localmess.github.io/

By embedding tracking code into millions of websites, Meta’s Pixel and Yandex Metrica have been able to map Android users’ browsing habits with their persistent identities (that is to say, with the account holder logged in). This method bypasses privacy protections offered by Android’s permission controls and even browsers’ Incognito Mode, affecting all major Android browsers. The international research team has disclosed the issue to several browser vendors, who are actively working on mitigations to limit this type of abuse. For instance, Chrome’s mitigation is scheduled to go into effect very soon.

These tracking companies have been doing this bypass for a long time: since 2017 in the case of Yandex, and Meta since September 2024. The number of people affected by this abuse is high, given that Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica are estimated to be installed on 5.8 million and 3 million sites, respectively. It is also worth noting that evidence of this tracking practice has been observed only on Android.

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  • LWD@lemm.ee
    23·
    2 days ago

    So are Meta’s ties to the US and the MAGA regime.

    But for some reason, Hotznplotzn appears more interested in promoting an America First form of nationalism than privacy advocacy, because that interest in privacy evaporates when American entities do it.