Social media apps such as Facebook and Instagram are collecting more of our personal data than ever. Is there anything you can do to protect yourself?
Data breaches are becoming frighteningly common. At the same time, businesses are asking for more and more of our private information, whether they really need it or not.
Apart from the obviously personal stuff such as driver’s licence numbers and banking details, certain apps and websites are also tracking your internet activity and especially your shopping habits – even when you’re not using their app or website.
Social media apps are particularly notorious for this kind of far-reaching tracking.
Read: Your privacy rights given data breaches and identity theft
Back in August, IT security expert Felix Krause analysed the apps of social media giants Facebook and Instagram – both owned by the parent company Meta – and found both apps contained a kind of ‘backdoor’ method of tracking your activity on any website accessed through the app.
Normally, when you follow an external link within an app, the app can track that you clicked the link, but not anything that happens after that.
But Meta found a workaround. They added a custom in-app browser to both the Facebook and Instagram apps, in which any third-party links the user clicked would open.
This allows Meta to continue to track your activity even outside the app, without your consent.
Read: Half of online privacy policies unreadable, CHOICE says
“[Meta] injects their tracking code into every website shown, including when clicking on ads, enabling them [to] monitor all user interactions, like every button and link tapped, text selections, screenshots, as well as any form inputs, like passwords, addresses and credit card numbers,” Mr Krause says.
What can I do to protect myself?
The simplest way to protect yourself from the invasive tracking of the Facebook and Instagram apps is to not use them.
That may seem like a blithe answer, but we’re not saying you need to stop accessing social media completely, just don’t access any third-party links you come across in the app.
Read: Why Apple’s new ‘app tracking transparency’ has angered Facebook
On both Apple and Android phones, you can usually access an option through the three dots in the corner to open any links within an app in a separate, more secure browser such as Safari, Chrome or Firefox.
It’s true those browsers can come with their own tracking issues, but they come with many more security options than Facebook or Instagram will allow.
If you can’t find this option, you can also copy the link from the app and paste it into your browser of choice.
Do you use the Facebook or Instagram apps? Do you ever click links within the apps? Let us know in the comments section below.
