Yes, there's a pretty major difference between this and the story it's referencing about in-app Facebook tracking. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1931921

Yes, there's a pretty major difference between this and the story it's referencing about in-app Facebook tracking. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19319215 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19319215) Sites running tracking pixels are consciously tracking their users and feeding info to advertising players for their own benefit. I suspect many people would be surprised that this happens even when you're not signed into the relevant service and don't see anything like a "share this on Facebook" icon, but the basic concept of browser tracking isn't that weird. That pixel on The Verge didn't end up their by accident. On the other hand, the Facebook SDK fires an event every time you open an app using it - by default, even if you aren't signed into Facebook, even if the app's creator never intended that behavior and gets no benefit from it. And, of course, auditing or controlling app behavior and data exchange is way harder than doing the same for browsers. The average person who runs uBlock or Privacy Badger still isn't emulating every app they download to study its behavior.