While the movement #DeleteFacebook, continues to refer to social, a survey by AdGuard proves that no one can escape Facebook. Why; The monitoring software created by the largest social network exists in an amazing number of applications.
The Facebook Audience Network is a tool used by developers in many applications. It exists almost everywhere as an ad network, allowing developers to make money, but it also functions as an analytics tool, offering insights into user behavior and demographics.
It basically works regardless of whether you have a Facebook account or not.
AdGuard examined 2.556 popular applications from Google Play store and found that 41% interacted with the Facebook Audience Network. Of course, the most worrying thing is that none of these applications asked for the user's consent during installation.
But what are the data that these apps share with Facebook? According to AdGuard, there are too many:
- Google Ads ID is a unique identifier for
- Ads provided by Google Play ”device information (operating system, make, model, screen resolution).
- Language code and time zone.
- Mobile provider name.
- Information from the applications, including the names of each activity. AdGuard points out that this behavior is very worrying because it states that the Facebook Audience Network is often used in applications that run on private information (eg banking applications) and because the names of activities can be very descriptive (ie TransferFundsActivity ). ”
- The IP address.
- Anything else the app developer decides to include. "For example, apps can send information about purchases, the enrollment of users to services and more,” reports AdGuard.
The good news is that you can protect yourself very easily because all data is transferred to one address: graph.facebook.com.
So if you add the above address to the blocked URL list, Facebook will not be able to receive any of the above information.
What do you do for total exclusion? Facebook: how can you become totally invisible
However, as persignalAccording to AdGuard's research, about 88% of apps connect to third-party servers and 61% send personal information.
If you think Facebook is the only company that collects your personal information through the applications you use, you are wrong.