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berternste@pod.orkz.net
Bert Ernste

How Facebook tracks you on Android (even if you don't have a Facebook account)

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(...) 1 Facebook is able to track you because Android developers of 3rd party apps (example: Indeed Job Search) implement Facebook’s Software Development Kit (SDK).
2 SDK is a collection of tools that eases the creation of software. By using Facebook SDK, developers can do advanced analytics without the need to code it from scratch. SDK is like a Swiss Army Knife. With it, you can start your job immediately instead of having to build your own scissors, knife, corkscrew etc.
3 This article is written based on the research conducted by Frederike Kaltheuner and Christopher Weatherhead. You can watch the full video here. The official study can be found here. (...)

According to Privacy International, research done by the University of Oxford has suggested that approximately 42.55% of the free apps in the Google Play Store could share data with Facebook. (...)

Out of the 42.55%, this study picked 34 apps, based on the fact that they have either a huge number of installations, or they involve sensitive information such as religion and health, or they are simply utility apps (You know, torchlight, QR code scanner, fart sound etc). (...)

Out of the 34 apps, over 61% of them automatically transfer data to Facebook the moment a user opens the app. (...)

What’s our defense? (...)

1. Reset your advertising identifier (Very simple)
Every device has an advertising identifier (aka ad id). You can’t stop Facebook or Google from tracking you but you can make their tracking difficult by frequently resetting your ad id. If you reset it, in theory, Facebook and Google algorithms will view you as a different person in your next online activity.
Android Phone: Go to settings > Google > Ads > Reset advertising identifier
iPhone: Go to settings > Privacy > Advertising > Reset advertising identifier

2. Limit ad personalization (Very simple)
In theory, this should limit the amount of data collected by the companies. However, this study showed that we can end up sharing more data to companies if we limit ad personalization. But I will not go into the details of that.
Android: Go to Settings > Google > Ads > Opt Out of Personalized Advertising
iPhone: Go to settings > Privacy > Advertising > turn on ‘Limit Ad Tracking’

3. Review permissions (Very annoying)
Did you notice that apps these days have been asking for permissions before you carry out a simple task like importing a photo or opening a map? Yeah, it’s irritating but it’s crucial. This allows you to have greater control of your privacy. Not perfect, but at least it helps to a certain extent.

4. Use Brave browser to surf & use DuckDuckGo to search (Simple)
Brave (as opposed to Google Chrome) is a web browser which focuses a lot more on data privacy.
DuckDuckGo (as opposed to Google Search) is a search engine which distinguishes itself from other search engines by not profiling its users.

5. Educate yourself / your parents / your children on how the Internet works (Not so simple)
Education is the most powerful weapon. There are tons of articles and YouTube videos explaining how computers and network works; go read them up. However, if the content is too complex, especially for the older generations and the newcomers (aka your children), you can check out Potato Pirates -Enter The Spudnet. It’s a board game that’s developed to teach cybersecurity and internet piracy without computers. (...)

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Tags: #privacy #data #data_mining #surveillance_capitalism #facebook #apps #android #ios #tracking #personal_data #kayak #brave #brave_browser #duckduckgo #permissions #Software_Development_Kit #SDK

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