An anonymous reader quotes the Bloomberg post: Meta is being sued for allegedly creating a secret way around security measures Apple launched last year to protect iPhone users from having their online activity tracked. In a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Francisco federal court, two Facebook users accuse the company of circumventing Apple’s 2021 privacy rules and violating state and federal laws that limit the unauthorized collection of personal data. A similar complaint was filed in the same court last week. The suits are based on a report by data privacy researcher Felix Krause, who said that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps for Apple’s iOS inject JavaScript code into websites users visit. Krause said the code allows apps to track “everything you do on any site,” including entering passwords.
According to the lawsuits, Facebook’s collection of user meta data from the app helps it circumvent rules Apple introduced in 2021 requiring all third-party apps to obtain user consent before tracking their online or offline activities. Meta said it will miss out on $10 billion in ad revenue in 2022 because of Apple’s changes. Facebook’s app circumvents Apple’s privacy rules by opening web links in a built-in browser instead of the user’s default browser, according to a complaint filed Wednesday. “This allows Meta to intercept, monitor and record its users’ interactions and communications with third parties, providing data to Meta that it aggregates, analyzes and uses to increase advertising revenue,” the suit says. A Meta spokesman said the allegations were “baseless” and the company would defend itself. “We designed our in-app browser to respect users’ privacy choices, including how data may be used for advertising,” the company said in an emailed statement.
