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I can't imagine why anyone would expect otherwise. If you're still 'inside' an application, why wouldn't that app be able to track everything you do? To compl
by ledauphin 4y ago
I can't imagine why anyone would expect otherwise. If you're still 'inside' an application, why wouldn't that app be able to track everything you do?
To completely hijack the discussion here, I believe that Apple is actually one of the strongest forces for anti-privacy in the world, because of their long-term, successful push for the convention of app > website (not fully supporting PWAs, disallowing web push, etc). A website may spy on you, but it can only do so in ways constrained by the browser, which has to serve many "masters". Mobile apps are completely unconstrained in their spying, and in-app browsers are just the logical extension of that pattern.
Thanks largely to Apple, we've conditioned ourselves to expecting that you can't have good mobile UX without a mobile-native application, and it's hard to imagine ever escaping back into the relatively open web now that we're this far down this path. Most people will never question the privacy implications of installing the Facebook app, and most of Apple's privacy-directed efforts on iOS are basically playing walled-garden whack-a-mole on problems that are better solved at a societal level with web browser standards.
Yes, it's quite likely that I'm scapegoating here, but it's the way I see it.
- ezfe 4y agoApps that use Safari View Controller cannot view the page - of course Facebook doesn't use SVC for this reason. While you're right that the Facebook/Instagram app can spy on links opened within the app, it can't plant cookies in your web browser - so those go both ways.
- jefftk 4y agoI thought Facebook/Instagram used a WebView for their in-app browser on both iOS and Android? Which means they can do anything they want, including exfiltrate your browsing.
- ezfe 4y agoI meant "of course Facebook doesn't [use Safari View Controller]". WebView ≠ Safari View Controller. Safari View Controller keeps the users cookies from Safari and prevents this behavior. For most apps, keeping users logged in without leaving the app is preferred, so they give up the ability to inspect the contents of the page.
- wonderbore 4y agoGP a was referring to a specific “web view” implementation that offers an almost-complete browser implementation and security on iOS. Facebook does not use this but a regular WebView
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]