Facebook sued for tracking. It had to bypass Apple’s protections.

Apple users have filed two independent lawsuits against Meta, the holding company responsible for Facebook and Instagram, among other things. We are talking about a high-profile case of users being tracked by these applications, despite the security measures introduced in iOS 14.5.

The victims hope that the cases will turn into class action lawsuits, which could mean serious problems for the corporation. Meta, in a statement to Engadget, also claims that both claims are “unfounded” and the company will “strongly” defend its position.

Are Facebook and Instagram bypassing Apple’s security system?

It all started with a discovery made by security researcher Felix Krause. He noted that popular social networking apps track users who click on links shared with them by other Internet users.

How it works? Generally, if a user opens a link to content in apps like TikTok, Facebook, Messenger, or Instagram, they are not redirected to the default browser app. Instead, a browser inside the application opens.

Krause confirmed that javascript code is being injected into internal browsers to track clicks, page visits, screenshots, text highlights, and other user actions. What’s more, Instagram must also keep track of every information entered, including passwords or credit card numbers.

Facebook vs. Apple - companies go to war

Krause also confirmed that tracking is present in iOS 14.5 apps. Apple has introduced additional tracking protection in this version of the system - App Tracking Transparency (ATT). In short, this feature, when first opened, asks all applications not to track the user. The latter must consciously consent to tracking (opt-in, not opt-out).

ATT was first introduced in April 2021, and since then, Facebook has been fighting the feature as best it could. Mark Zuckerberg’s company asked users to voluntarily enable tracking. It has also been noted that Apple’s feature could cost Meta an estimated $10 billion in lost revenue.