Meta devised an ingenious system (“localhost tracking”) that bypassed Android’s sandbox protections to identify you while browsing on your mobile phone — even if you used a VPN, the browser’s incognito mode, and refused or deleted cookies in every session.

This is the process through which Meta (Facebook/Instagram) managed to link what you do in your browser (for example, visiting a news site or an online store) with your real identity (your Facebook or Instagram account), even if you never logged into your account through the browser or anything like that.

Meta accomplishes this through two invisible channels that exchange information:

(i) The Facebook or Instagram app running in the background on your phone, even when you’re not using it.

(ii) Meta’s tracking scripts (the now-pulled illegal brainchild uncovered last week), which operate inside your mobile web browser.

Meta devised an ingenious system (“localhost tracking”) that bypassed Android’s sandbox protections to identify you while browsing on your mobile phone — even if you used a VPN, the browser’s incognito mode, and refused or deleted cookies in every session.

This is the process through which Meta (Facebook/Instagram) managed to link what you do in your browser (for example, visiting a news site or an online store) with your real identity (your Facebook or Instagram account), even if you never logged into your account through the browser or anything like that.

Meta accomplishes this through two invisible channels that exchange information:

(i) The Facebook or Instagram app running in the background on your phone, even when you’re not using it.

(ii) Meta’s tracking scripts (the now-pulled illegal brainchild uncovered last week), which operate inside your mobile web browser.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/897462

"Meta devised an ingenious system (“localhost tracking”) that bypassed Android’s sandbox protections to identify you while browsing on your mobile phone — even if you used a VPN, the browser’s incognito mode, and refused or deleted cookies in every session."

Esto lo vi en el otro random recién. Está muy bueno.

Header in DeepL:

Meta hat ein ausgeklügeltes System („Localhost-Tracking“) entwickelt, das die Sandbox-Schutzmaßnahmen von Android umgeht, um Sie beim Surfen auf Ihrem Mobiltelefon zu identifizieren – selbst wenn Sie ein VPN, den Inkognito-Modus des Browsers verwendet und Cookies in jeder Sitzung abgelehnt oder gelöscht haben.

Als Nächstes geben wir einen Ausblick auf das, was die kombinierte Sanktionsmaßnahme des Jahrhunderts werden könnte (und sollte), und erklären dann – in einfachen Worten (weil es kompliziert ist) – was Meta getan hat.