Meta is rolling out a new way to log your activity on Facebook and Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg’s company has developed a “link history” that lists the websites you have visited from the mobile applications of its social networks. They present it as a useful resource for the user, but it is a subtle way to whitewash how they collect your data for advertising purposes.
This feature is not available for the desktop version of Instagram and Facebook. However, it is now ready for some users of iOS and Android devices. The update is being gradually rolled out “around the world,” explains Meta in its help website. So it probably won’t appear for you yet.
The history lists all the links you accessed through Instagram and Facebook in the last 30 days and what you visit from the integrated browser of these applications. It’s on by default, but you can turn it off at any time. “If you turn on link history, we may use browser history information from Facebook—and Instagram—for mobile to improve your ads in Meta technologies,” the company explains.
When you turn off the new feature, Meta may take up to 90 days to finish deleting all your history. The platforms links visited from chats will not be included in the record of Messenger and Instagram.
On Facebook, you can review your history or turn it off at Setting. While on Instagram you will find it in the section Your activityin the main menu of your profile.
Your privacy when using the Facebook and Instagram browser
Meta has actually always monitored the links that are clicked when you use Facebook or Instagram. Felix Krausedeveloper of the automation application Fastlane, revealed in mid-2022 how these social networks use the browser integrated into their applications to “inject a tracker.”
Browsers built into applications such as Facebook and Instagram make it easy to access linked content without having to leave these platforms. But they also allow companies like Meta to record every interaction you make on an external site. According to Krause, this ranges from tapping on an ad to opening another link, selecting text, or even taking a screenshot. Other apps, including TikTok, do the same.
Meta justified this form of monitoring at the time by highlighting that Users consent to apps like Facebook and Instagram tracking their data. The company said this information is used for targeted advertising or unspecified “measurement purposes.” So, in practice, what Meta is doing with the new link history is giving visibility to its crawling machinery. Almost an illusion of control.
Counterflow
When it comes to privacy issues, Meta goes against the grain. Apple, for example, has implemented a privacy control for iPhones since 2020 called App Tracking Transparency. Google is about to implement the first controlled test to eliminate cookies from Chrome users.
But regulators are also trying to apply pressure. At the beginning of last year, the European Union fined Meta 390 million euros for forcing Instagram and Facebook users to receive personalized ads. And in November, the European Data Protection Committee expressly prohibited it from using the personal information of European citizens to show them ads based on their behavior.
Meta, for now, decided to create a new paid version of Facebook and instagram that will allow you to browse both social networks without seeing ads. But the commitment to privacy does not improve, as explained by the company itself. Paying the monthly subscription does not in any case prevent the tracking of personal data, it only guarantees that it is not used for advertising.