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Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

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Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#431

Post by Roby65 »

secretsatan wrote: post #429
Roby65 wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come that my apps get rejected if i don't use SafariViewController but they can publish them?

What are you trying to use? There's no restriction on using WKWebView. If you try to bypass Webkit, you'll get rejected for sure, but you are not forced to use SFSafariViewController

I am using the inappbrowser for Cordova, that i am sure uses WKWebView, but as soon as the app store testers see the webview, they reject the app and want me to use SafariViewController. Happened to all my latest app submissions/updates

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#432

Post by prmoustache »

PenguinCoder wrote: post #320
prmoustache wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually twitter is fine on a mobile browser provided you use an account. What I miss is the multi-container extension on fennec/firefox mobile. I keep using those sites in incognito mode but that mean I can only use one at a time.

> provided you use an account. Within 3 days of registering a new account they will prompt you 'for a phone number, because we detected security issues with your usage'. Don't know how having a phone number helps with security issues like that, but again -user hostile-. I'm not creating a Twitter account just to read their public site, because they are user hostile and privacy invasive.

Well I respect that if you don't want to participate that's fine. There are still way of using an alternative web frontend like nitter.

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#433

Post by xuki »

manmal wrote: post #413
semiquaver wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SFSafariViewController is available as a safer alternative. Presumably at some point apple will deprecate and remove WKWebView for precisely the reasons mentioned in this article.

I don’t think they’ll ever remove that, because a decent portion of apps serve HTML from the app bundle (many hybrid apps do nothing else infact) and SFSafariController can’t hide its chrome. Many hybrid apps do need the delegation methods WKWebView offers, which are already way more limited than UIWebView was.

This is a policy problem, not a technical one. They'll keep WKWebView around but only for non-browsing purpose. Anything that resembles a web browser, SFSafariController or rejection.

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#434

Post by account42 »

andix wrote: post #212
upupandup wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't. By that logic any browser is liable for violating ToS of websites, which btw isn't the law and you are not obligated to follow anyhow. This of course is a different case for corporations with a dedicated legal team.

First Instagram is not a browser. And second the browser manufacturer (usually) doesn’t make any money by tracking their users. They provide them with a tool, a browser. There is the browser Brave, that replaces ads on websites (and makes some profit with that), and there are some serious legal issues coming with that.

> And second the browser manufacturer (usually) doesn’t make any money by tracking their users.

Don't they? Google, Apple and Microsoft are all in the ads business.

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#435

Post by account42 »

yreg wrote: post #183
iamjk wrote: post #162

Isn't this... what everyone (that uses in-app browsers) does? I just assumed that's a big reason why one would use in-app over sending a person to their native environment, which is decidedly a better browsing experience.

I think that in times when user just quickly checks some website the better UX is to stay in the app, so there would be legitimate use cases. e.g. Apollo by iamthatis here on hn does this and I very much doubt he is doing it for tracking reasons.

No post body was provided.

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#436

Post by makoto12 »

hollowturtle wrote: post #222

I’m not surprised and it’s really annoying apps still use in-app browsers. I remember even Telegram had that at one point, with link opening only on in-app browser(at least on iOS). But what really annoys me is that most of the users, e.g. my girlfriend, have NO IDEA about the difference, it’s just a browsing window, no matter in-app, which engine, with which privacy feature. Perhaps os vendors should show more obvio…

in-app browsers are a much better UX imo, solution is to make them safe, not get rid of them, as they solve a real ux use case

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#437

Post by ikurei »

riazrizvi wrote: post #235

Only Instagram? Every app maker who makes an in app browser can see what you do, that’s the point of embedding it. And why not? You arrive there because of a link in the container app you clicked on. They want to see what you do with the link they gave you. Otherwise only Google/Apple can see what you do with it. Someone can see what you do with the link no matter what.

> They want to see what you do with the link they gave you.

Except they didn't give it to me, my partner/sibling/parent/friend did, in a message sent through their app. We should expect that kind of interaction, to not be tracked; should expect, but obviously can't expect it today, these news are not surprising.

This is just one more aspect of their tracking that may be non-obvious, and that it's good to know about.

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#439

Post by andix »

account42 wrote: post #434
andix wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First Instagram is not a browser. And second the browser manufacturer (usually) doesn’t make any money by tracking their users. They provide them with a tool, a browser. There is the browser Brave, that replaces ads on websites (and makes some profit with that), and there are some serious legal issues coming with that.

> And second the browser manufacturer (usually) doesn’t make any money by tracking their users. Don't they? Google, Apple and Microsoft are all in the ads business.

Yes, but they don't secretly track you on the websites you visit.

They do it in some way, but not directly on the browser. More with settings sync, their search engines, ...

The thing about the law is, that some specific things are forbidden. And if you achieve the same goal, in another legal way, it is fine.

For example saving taxes: If you make a fraudulent report and save 1000$ this is illegal. But if you find a way to save 1000$ on taxes, by declaring something legal, the same 1000$ are fine. But in both cases you save exactly the same amount.

Re: Instagram can track anything you do on any website in their in-app browser

#440

Post by yreg »

account42 wrote: post #435
yreg wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that in times when user just quickly checks some website the better UX is to stay in the app, so there would be legitimate use cases. e.g. Apollo by iamthatis here on hn does this and I very much doubt he is doing it for tracking reasons.

Quoted post unavailable.

I believe it is. Don't forget to go write your helpful 'No.' here as well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32423517

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