this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2025
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Privacy
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This android only.
From the article:
Meta managed to do this even when:
You aren’t using the app (but have a session open in the background).
You haven’t logged into your account in the browser.
You’re browsing in incognito mode.
You’re using a VPN.
You delete cookies at the end of every session.
The captured data includes:
Complete browsing history with specific URLs
Products added to cart and purchases made
Registrations on websites and completed forms
Temporal behavioral patterns across websites and apps
Direct linking to real identities on social networks
You’re not affected if (and only if)
You access Facebook and Instagram via the web, without having the apps installed on your phone
You browse on desktop computers or use iOS (iPhones)
You always used the Brave browser or the DuckDuckGo search engine on mobile
What if I never access Facebook, and have ever had a Facebook account?
In answer to your question, if I'm understanding it correctly, you are still being tracked as long as you use the web. Meta has profiles for people that have never logged into facebook, used their site in a browser or used an app they control.
The profile might not have a name attached but Facebook provides a ton of websites with FB-related statistics, social widgets and more. Each of those services place FB code on the page that phones home with unique visitor information. That gets compiled into profiles that they can eventually tie to an identity when more information is compiled (as an example, your highschool friend from 15 years ago installs a Meta app like instagram and clicks ok on allowing it to dig through their contacts).
Apps and extensions like Privacy Badger, uBlockO and Ghostery help with the tracking code but I've no doubt that Meta spends a lot of time finding workarounds for the blocks.
This made me think of Innovative Online Industries in Ready Player One. A corporation basically trying to domineer and take over a collective thing (internet).
They have a shadow profile on you, because you viewed sites that embed Facebook objects such as like buttons, but this particular item does not affect you.
How did you do the cool font in your name?
Look up Unicode Fraktur characters
I don't recall which one anymore, but there are web sites that take text you type and convert it to Unicode code points in different styles. DDG for "Unicode text converter" or something like that.