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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

#241

Post by yowzadave »

davet91 wrote: post #166
graham1776 wrote: post #152

I've meant to write a blog post about this, but here goes: In-app browsers allow users to view inappropriate content, often against the wishes of sensitive individuals. People especially at risk for this include addicts and children. Nearly every app, even "safe apps" including children-rated apps, allow access to an in app browser. Even when iOs has locked down all access to Safari, a parent has removed access to al…

The in-app browsers could use a domain whitelist if parental controls are turned on.

Shouldn't an in-app browser whose sole purpose is to read an app EULA/TOC/etc. always employ a domain whitelist, regardless of parental controls?

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

#242

Post by bigfudge »

smoldesu wrote: post #195
graham1776 wrote: post #152

I've meant to write a blog post about this, but here goes: In-app browsers allow users to view inappropriate content, often against the wishes of sensitive individuals. People especially at risk for this include addicts and children. Nearly every app, even "safe apps" including children-rated apps, allow access to an in app browser. Even when iOs has locked down all access to Safari, a parent has removed access to al…

Or maybe... just don't give your kids an iPhone? Seriously, using the internet/computers should be treated with the same level of caution as grown-up scissors or fillet knives; powerful tools, but they need training to avoid hurting yourself with them. If this is what you're worried about, why are you even giving them a small computer in the first place? Your kids will always be more cunning than your security policy…

Says someone who doesn’t have kids. I really don’t think it’s a big empathetic leap to imagine that young teens would want to take part in the modern world, and that includes some access to the internet.

And no, constant supervision is not an appropriate answer. Teens will want to research some things without their parents’ knowledge. That’s normal.

But it doesn’t mean that we should throw our hands in the air and make no effort to protect the majority of kids from the worst of the internet. Yes some bright sparks may find ways to circumvent the controls, but it at least makes it harder for them to send a disguised goatse link to their friends.

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

#243

Post by nocsi »

kccqzy wrote: post #189
tolmasky wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even worse than that: 1. Nothing you visit gets saved in your history. So many times I'm looking through my history thinking "I could have sworn I read an article about this..." only to eventually discover (if I'm lucky) that it was in Twitter's stupid in-app browser. But oh well, never going to find that article again! The irony of the APP knowing everything you visit but you never getting to remember what you…

The original SFSafariViewController did share cookies with regular Safari. The documentation says > In iOS 9 and 10, it shares cookies and other website data with Safari. I was also also disappointed that they removed it in iOS 11. But it's still a step-up from other even more horrible in-app browsers like in Instagram, which are implemented with WKWebView. I refuse to read anything in those in-app browsers; I always…

lol what you’re describing as a ‘feature’ is actually insecure & vulnerable. There are strong security reasons why Apple mandates WKWebView and bans SFSafari.

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

#244

Post by als0 »

jamespo wrote: post #220
happyopossum wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the app can use DOH, or tunnel DNS requests over something else - a non-safari browser engine wouldn’t have to use system DNS by any means…

I thought non-safari browser engines were banned

They are. This is a hypothetical discussion.

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

#246

Post by judge2020 »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #240
zippergz wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure this has gotten better as people have become more used to smartphones, but I worked on a popular app for a big company a number of years ago, and we would send people out to Safari to open links. The number of customer service calls we got from people who couldn't figure out how to get back to the app after that was ASTOUNDING. We eventually gave in and did an in-app browser. Not only did it get rid of that…

That's a very understandable decision from an app developer POV. But the fault lies with the OS and ideally should be solved by it. This isn't a problem on real computers. It's like putting a toilet in every room because people can't find the bathroom when maybe the bathroom shouldn't have been hidden down in a hatch under a rug. But you can't easily rebuild your house, and now there's shit everywhere, so what is one…

iOS 'solved' this by including a back button in the top left that takes you to the previous app, but now I sometimes misclick that when trying to hit a button/control in the top left of the foreground app. On a small 5 to 8-inch display, there's tradeoffs for every change they make and in every stage of the design process.

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

#247

Post by LegitShady »

michannne wrote: post #214
graham1776 wrote: post #152

I've meant to write a blog post about this, but here goes: In-app browsers allow users to view inappropriate content, often against the wishes of sensitive individuals. People especially at risk for this include addicts and children. Nearly every app, even "safe apps" including children-rated apps, allow access to an in app browser. Even when iOs has locked down all access to Safari, a parent has removed access to al…

We used to exploit these types of paths when school IT admins didn't know how to filter traffic properly but knew to block proxies.

There was a period of time at my high school where we would compile a default browser app in Borland c++ and it would let you access whatever it wanted. They noticed because they got proper filtering after that...

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

#248

Post by chadlavi »

bigfudge wrote: post #237
polote wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A feature doesn't become a problem because 1% have an issue with it (people who use parental control). The internet is the internet if you want to restrict what people can see on the internet the only solution is to not have access to it at all

Do you have kids? It’s really not easy to withdraw all internet access without substantially disadvantaging them. But I don’t want them reading 4chan either. Anything which makes that less likely without fundamentally breaking things is welcome to me.

As a child of the 2000s: just let them look at the horrifying underbelly of the internet. One trip down grossout lane isn't going to undo all your parenting and make them some kind of perverted monster.

Children aren't prisoners.

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

#250

Post by CodeSgt »

graham1776 wrote: post #152

I've meant to write a blog post about this, but here goes: In-app browsers allow users to view inappropriate content, often against the wishes of sensitive individuals. People especially at risk for this include addicts and children. Nearly every app, even "safe apps" including children-rated apps, allow access to an in app browser. Even when iOs has locked down all access to Safari, a parent has removed access to al…

I'm glad to see someone mention addicts. I feel as if internet addiction, and especially subsets of it such as porn addiction, aren't given enough weight by either the addiction treatment community or the technical community.

Before someone accuses me of being a conservative religious zealot as tends to happen when anyone denounces porn, I'll say that I'm far from a puritan and am extremely liberal in my social views. That said, I firmly believe that easy access porn is one of the worst things happening to the young men and women today. I (23) know many men around my age who suffer from chronic porn addictions to the point that it severely impacts their ability for form real relationships and median age of first exposure is getting lower and lower.

It's an absolutely crucial issue that no one seems to be talking about or taking seriously.

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