{"id":12667,"date":"2022-08-19T14:41:17","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T14:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/19\/this-site-exposes-the-creepy-things-in-app-browsers-from-tiktok-and-instagram-might-track\/"},"modified":"2022-08-19T14:41:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T14:41:19","slug":"this-site-exposes-the-creepy-things-in-app-browsers-from-tiktok-and-instagram-might-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/19\/this-site-exposes-the-creepy-things-in-app-browsers-from-tiktok-and-instagram-might-track\/","title":{"rendered":"This site exposes the creepy things in-app browsers from TikTok and Instagram might track"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/19\/23312725\/in-app-browser-tracking-facebook-instagram-privacy-tool\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/19\/23312725\/in-app-browser-tracking-facebook-instagram-privacy-tool<\/a><br \/>\n<code><br \/><\/br><\/code><\/p>\n<div readability=\"102.83541017653\">\n<p id=\"kqmYqc\">Did you know you\u2019re potentially being tracked when you load an in-app browser on iOS? A new tool reveals exactly how, showing how applications like TikTok and Instagram can potentially use JavaScript to view sensitive data, including your address, passwords and credit card information, without your consent.<\/p>\n<p id=\"p5UJmp\">The tool can be found at <a href=\"http:\/\/inappbrowser.com\">InAppBrowser.com<\/a>. All you need to do is open the app you want to check and share the InAppBrowser.com URL somewhere within it \u2014 such as DMing the link to a friend or posting it in a comment. From there, you can tap the link and get a report from the website on what scripts are running in the background.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-right\">\n<aside id=\"X3lWHB\"><q>All you need to do is open the app you want to check, and share the InAppBrowser.com URL somewhere within it<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"hXirhM\">Don\u2019t be intimidated if you\u2019re unfamiliar with tech jargon, as the tool\u2019s developer, Felix Krause, <a href=\"https:\/\/krausefx.com\/blog\/announcing-inappbrowsercom-see-what-javascript-commands-get-executed-in-an-in-app-browser\">provides some FAQs<\/a> that explain exactly what you\u2019re seeing. In response to questions on how best to protect yourself, Krause states, \u201cWhenever you open a link from any app, see if the app offers a way to open the currently shown website in your default browser. During this analysis, every app besides TikTok offered a way to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"m2nKo2\">Krause is a security researcher and former Google employee who earlier this month <a href=\"https:\/\/krausefx.com\/blog\/ios-privacy-instagram-and-facebook-can-track-anything-you-do-on-any-website-in-their-in-app-browser\">shared a detailed report<\/a> on how browsers within apps like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok can be a privacy risk for iOS users.<\/p>\n<p id=\"DPTdLY\">In-app browsers are used when you tap a URL within an app. While these browsers are based on Safari\u2019s WebKit on iOS, developers can adjust them to run their own JavaScript code, allowing them to track your activity without consent from you or the third-party websites you visit.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-left\">\n<aside id=\"o4qArQ\"><q>Developers can browsers based on Safari\u2019s WebKit to run their own JavaScript code,  allowing them to track your activity.<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"67JOkg\">Apps can inject their JavaScript code into websites, allowing them to monitor how the user is interacting with the app. This can include information on every button or link you tap, keyboard inputs and if screenshots were taken, though each app will vary in what information it collects.<\/p>\n<p id=\"N4aqIA\"><a href=\"https:\/\/krausefx.com\/blog\/ios-privacy-instagram-and-facebook-can-track-anything-you-do-on-any-website-in-their-in-app-browser\">In response to Krause\u2019s earlier report<\/a>, Meta justified the use of these custom tracking scripts by claiming that users already consent to apps like Facebook and Instagram tracking their data. Meta also claims that the data retrieved is only used for targeted advertising or unspecified \u201cmeasurement purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"16ro0Z\">\u201cWe intentionally developed this code to honour people\u2019s [Ask to track] choices on our platforms,\u201d a Meta spokesperson said. \u201cThe code allows us to aggregate user data before using it for targeted advertising or measurement purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"6UY07M\">They added: \u201cFor purchases made through the in-app browser, we seek user consent to save payment information for the purposes of autofill.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-right\">\n<aside id=\"SOXECt\"><q>\u201cFor purchases made through the in-app browser, we seek user consent to save payment information for the purposes of autofill.\u201d<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"82a0O8\">The tool Krause developed isn\u2019t foolproof. He admits it can\u2019t detect all possible JavaScript commands being executed, and mentions that JavaScript is also used in legitimate development and isn\u2019t inherently malicious. He notes, \u201cThis tool can\u2019t detect all JavaScript commands executed, as well as doesn\u2019t show any tracking the app might do using native code (like custom gesture recognisers)\u201d. Still, this offers a user-friendly way for iOS users to check on their digital footprint across their favorite applications.<\/p>\n<p id=\"S8v2b6\">Krause has also made the tool open source, stating \u201cInAppBrowser.com is designed for everybody to verify for themselves what apps are doing inside their in-app browsers. I have decided to open source the code used for this analysis, you can check it out on <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/KrauseFx\/inAppBrowser.com\">GitHub<\/a>. This allows the community to update and improve this script over time.\u201d You can read more about it on <a href=\"https:\/\/krausefx.com\/\">his website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><code><br \/><\/br><\/code><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/19\/23312725\/in-app-browser-tracking-facebook-instagram-privacy-tool\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/19\/23312725\/in-app-browser-tracking-facebook-instagram-privacy-tool<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Did you know you\u2019re potentially being tracked when you load an in-app browser on iOS? A new tool reveals exactly how, showing how applications like TikTok and Instagram can potentially use JavaScript to view sensitive data, including your address, passwords and credit card information, without your consent. The tool can be found at InAppBrowser.com. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-12667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","category-technology","tag-policy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>This site exposes the creepy things in-app browsers from TikTok and Instagram might track - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/19\/this-site-exposes-the-creepy-things-in-app-browsers-from-tiktok-and-instagram-might-track\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This site exposes the creepy things in-app browsers from TikTok and Instagram might track - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: Did you know you\u2019re potentially being tracked when you load an in-app browser on iOS? 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