Facebook Admits Tracking non-FB-users Data using its Tools – 61 % of Tested Apps Automatically Transfer Data To FB

New Investigation conducted based on the data tracking, brokerage reveal that Facebook tracking non-users and logged-out users outside its platform through its Business Tools.   

Researchers tested many numbers of apps and confirm that 61% of tested apps are frequently sharing the data into Facebook from the moment once user open the apps.

Privacy International analyzed the many of the Android Apps using some of the open source tools “mitmproxy“, an interactive HTTPS proxy in order to sniff the traffic to findout the apps activities.

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Apps Developers are using Facebook Software Development Kit (SDK) to share the data to Facebook.

Apart from this, Apps are frequently sending data into Facebook sometimes it contains users sensitive data regardless of either user’s opt-outed from Facebook or users who do not have a Facebook account.

” Previous research has shown how 42.55 percent of free apps on the Google Play store could share data with Facebook, making Facebook the second most prevalent third-party tracker after Google’s parent company Alphabet. In this report, Privacy International illustrates what this data sharing looks like in practice, particularly for people who do not have a Facebook account.”

Privacy International Findings – Facebook Tracking

According To Privacy international findings here the some of key facts that performing by Facebook to collect the users Data.

• 61 % of Tested Apps are automatically sending data FB including non-FB users and logged-out users.

• In order to links advertiser with user behavior from different apps , apps that automatically transmit data to Facebook with a unique identifier, Google AAID & Apple’s IDFA.

• It collects people’s activities, interests, behaviors and routines, some of which can reveal special category data, including information about people’s health or religion

• Initially events data that communicates to Facebook using Facebook SDK which is initialized by transmitting data such as “App installed” and “SDK Initialized” to report each and every time when users open the specific apps.

• Example tested apps are “Qibla Connect” (a Muslim prayer app), “Period Tracker Clue” (a period tracker), “Indeed” (a job search app), “My Talking Tom” (a children’s’ app),

• Major 3 events “App installed”, “SDK Initialized” and “Deactivate app” alone shared the hundreds of millions of peoples users behavior.

• Some of the data that sharing into Facebook are aggressively sensitive and its very detailed.

• Main Example travel search and price comparison app “KAYAK”, which sends detailed information about people’s flight searches to Facebook, including: departure city, departure airport, departure date, arrival city, arrival airport, arrival date, number of tickets. 

• Facebook’s Cookies Policy describes two ways in which people who do not have a Facebook account can control Facebook’s use of cookies to show them ads. Privacy International has tested both opt-outs and found that they had no discernible impact on the data sharing that we have described in this report.

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