With Facebook and Instagram apps, Meta can track all keystrokes. Meta is being sued for tracking iPhone users despite Apple’s restriction
Meta is facing a new proposed class action that accuses it of tracking and collecting the personal data of iPhone users, despite features and policies created by Apple that aim to stop the same type of tracking.
In August, it was revealed that with the Facebook and Instagram apps, Meta could track all of a user’s keystrokes, keyboard input, and more when using the in-app browser. When a user clicks on a link on Instagram, for example, Meta can monitor their interactions, text selections, and even text input such as passwords and personal credit card information on that website.
This user tracking practice is a direct violation of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy, which requires apps to ask users for consent before tracking them on third-party apps and websites.
Filed Wednesday in San Francisco federal court, a new lawsuit accuses Meta of that violation, as Bloomberg Law reports. The proposed class action accuses Meta of violating Apple’s ATT framework and state and federal laws by collecting user data without user consent on its Facebook and Instagram apps.
In most iPhone apps, developers use Apple’s Safari to open links in their apps. However, Meta developed a custom in-app browser based on Apple’s WebKit framework for Instagram and Facebook. Meta Browser allows injecting a tracking JavaScript code called „Meta Pixel“ into all displayed links and websites.
The lawsuit accuses Meta of using the in-app browser on Facebook and Instagram as a way to circumvent rules imposed by Apple to prevent unwanted user tracking. „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 its advertising revenue,“ the suit says.
Since its introduction in June 2021, Meta has opposed Apple’s ATT policy, arguing that it would harm small businesses that rely on personalized ads.
Meta even published in a full-page newspaper ad that Apple is hurting small businesses’ ability to grow because if users opt out of tracking, they’re less likely to see ads that are personalized and recommended to them. Apple’s ATT framework has impacted Meta’s business as it is expected to lose $10 billion in revenue this year alone.
A Meta spokesperson provided MacRumors with the following statement:
„These allegations are baseless and we will defend ourselves vigorously. We designed our in-app browser to respect users’ privacy choices, including how data may be used for advertising.“