Lawsuits against Meta claim its apps track users despite Apple's rules

Two new class action lawsuits have been filed against the social network's parent company, Meta.

According to the lawsuits, Meta has been injecting javascript tracking code into websites that users visit via the in-app browsers in Facebook and Instagram.

Apple's new privacy policy called App Tracking transparency requires app developers to ask users if their data can be tracked Big tech companies have lost billions of dollars because of Apple's privacy decision. Tracking what internet users are doing online is a major revenue stream for businesses. Apple and Meta have been at each other's throats over the issue.

Meta could be breaking the law around the unauthorized collection of user data if the allegations are true.

Tweet may have been deleted

(opens in a new tab)

In August, security researcher Felix Krause published a post titled "Instagram and Facebook can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser," and shared his discovery with the world.

Kraus wrote that this allowsInstagram to monitor everything happening on external websites without the user's consent.

The issue was submitted to Meta about nine weeks before he published his research, but he didn't hear back. Meta reached out to the researcher in August to say that the system they built honors the user's ATT choice.

Tweet may have been deleted

(opens in a new tab)

According to the company's statement, the claims in the lawsuit are not merited. The in-app browser was designed to respect the privacy of users.