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How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

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Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#51

Post by IshKebab »

appleflaxen wrote: post #7

Is there a blog post or outline that summarizes this talk? I care about privacy, but don't have an hour to watch the whole video. The conference does provide a useful link to a privacy-centric page which catalogs some known facebook abuses: https://privacyinternational.org/types-abuse/facebook but there is no outline of this talk which summarizes the methods that facebook uses to spy on their users and the public.

TL;DR seems to be that lots of apps include the Facebook SDK and when you initialise the SDK it always sends your device ID back to Facebook.

Most negative news about Facebook is nonsense but this does seem to be pretty shady on Facebook's part.

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#52

Post by zozbot123 »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #49
sfifs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Android platform API should simply never allow apps to obtain global system identifiers When the revenue stream of the creator of Android fundamentally depends on being able to tie devices to identity and behaviour, it's highly unlikely this is going to happen. They can't also keep it only for themselves and block for others or they'll get unfair trade practices action on their backs. Thr fact that Apple which…

>When the revenue stream of the creator of Android fundamentally depends on being able to tie devices to identity and behaviour, it's highly unlikely this is going to happen. Well put. I’ve tried to explain to people that I prefer Apple’s upfrontness that they are there to sell me a device and it’s software for money. Unlike Android systems where I feel the lead is intentionally buried by telling me how “free” the so…

iOS apps have similar issues, actually. On the Android side, you can at least use free and auditable apps from the F-Droid repository, and buy your device from an OEM vendor which will let you unlock it and install google-free LineageOS.

(More speculatively, the community is now working on replacing AOSP altogether with the usual Linux desktop stack, via PostmarketOS. Not usable right now, but it's progressing rather quickly, and may well be practically useful later in 2019.)

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#53

Post by dirkgently »

GraemeL wrote: post #9
itg wrote: post #6

Does this also affect iOS? I imagine if the app is transmitting data to Facebook, then there's nothing stopping it on other platforms either.

The Kindle app on iOS gets blocked attempting to connect to Facebook every time I open it.

You are wording this in a way that it implies that this (block) happens by ios. That's not true and you know it.

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#54

Post by lern_too_spel »

nly wrote: post #24
blfr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you make good points about mobile apps, don't be too spoiled by the privacy offered by destop browsers. Because of their configuration and various APIs, they're almost as easy to fingerprint as mobile devices with advertising IDs. EFF has had a proof of concept online for quite a while https://panopticlick.eff.org/ And HN users are probably even more vulnerable since we will have customized our software making…

I know you're not disagreeing with me, but the issue you raise only distracts and lends ammo to the defenders of these prolific tracking mechanisms. It's the Nirvana fallacy. I'm sure there's a Google rep somewhere that will tell you that their "advertising ID" is better than the status quo on the web because the user can rotate it and, because it's reliable and easy for app devs to use, they are discouraged from bei…

The Android advertising ID is exactly the same as the iOS IDFA. Both companies enforce policies on using those identifiers for apps published on their app stores.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...

https://www.businessinsider.com/ifa-apples-iphone-tracking-i...

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#56

Post by paulcole »

zozbot123 wrote: post #52
SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>When the revenue stream of the creator of Android fundamentally depends on being able to tie devices to identity and behaviour, it's highly unlikely this is going to happen. Well put. I’ve tried to explain to people that I prefer Apple’s upfrontness that they are there to sell me a device and it’s software for money. Unlike Android systems where I feel the lead is intentionally buried by telling me how “free” the so…

iOS apps have similar issues, actually. On the Android side, you can at least use free and auditable apps from the F-Droid repository, and buy your device from an OEM vendor which will let you unlock it and install google-free LineageOS. (More speculatively, the community is now working on replacing AOSP altogether with the usual Linux desktop stack, via PostmarketOS. Not usable right now, but it's progressing rather…

> iOS apps have similar issues, actually.

Which issues specifically?

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#57

Post by alangpierce »

javajosh wrote: post #44
product50 wrote: post #40

This is not unique to Facebook and is true for almost all SDKs, which can track the same events (which this talks mentions), that the app has. Google tracks exactly the same events which FB does as well. Also, the same thing happens on iOS too - not sure why the talk avoided it. Once the app has the SDK for a third party (regardless of OS), tracking all events within the app is fair game.

What is your motivation posting this? Because it sounds like a great example of "whataboutism". Just because an evil is done a lot, and in different contexts doesn't make it not evil.

My reading of it was that product50 was providing additional relevant information and context, which I personally found interesting and useful. I didn't at all get the impression that product50 was trying to make an argument like "since everyone's doing it, that makes it ok" (or any argument at all, for that matter).

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#58

Post by lern_too_spel »

scarface74 wrote: post #35
Daniel_sk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are removing the ability to get any device identifiers in newer Android versions - unless you ask the user for a permission. https://developer.android.com/training/articles/user-data-id... There are advertising IDs and these can be reset. But I am not saying it's ideal in Android - up until recently you could easily fingerprint a device and you can do it today if you ask the users for permission (which the avera…

“asking users for permission” never works. You end up with Vista style UAC. What about not allowing it all? Even before iOS and Android were a thing, Windows Mobile had a way for apps to uniquely identify a device but that unique identifier was per app/per user.

Because there are some applications that have a real need for knowing the actual MAC address or the IMEI.

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#59

Post by SalimoS »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #49
sfifs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Android platform API should simply never allow apps to obtain global system identifiers When the revenue stream of the creator of Android fundamentally depends on being able to tie devices to identity and behaviour, it's highly unlikely this is going to happen. They can't also keep it only for themselves and block for others or they'll get unfair trade practices action on their backs. Thr fact that Apple which…

>When the revenue stream of the creator of Android fundamentally depends on being able to tie devices to identity and behaviour, it's highly unlikely this is going to happen. Well put. I’ve tried to explain to people that I prefer Apple’s upfrontness that they are there to sell me a device and it’s software for money. Unlike Android systems where I feel the lead is intentionally buried by telling me how “free” the so…

I’m interested to know what’s wrong in this comment with all the downvotes, personally I use ios only for exactly this google/ads/tracking

Re: How Facebook tracks you on Android [video]

#60

Post by scarface74 »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #58
scarface74 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“asking users for permission” never works. You end up with Vista style UAC. What about not allowing it all? Even before iOS and Android were a thing, Windows Mobile had a way for apps to uniquely identify a device but that unique identifier was per app/per user.

Because there are some applications that have a real need for knowing the actual MAC address or the IMEI.

Which applications would that be?

I’m sure there are applications that need unlimited access to your file system, read your text messages, and read your call logs.

How has that worked out for the privacy and security of Android users?

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