Instagram and Facebook now have another way to record the websites you visit from their apps.

Meta introduces 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’ve visited from its social media mobile apps. They present it as a useful resource for the user, but it is a subtle way to whitewash the collection of 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 iOS and Android device users. The update is gradually rolling out “worldwide,” Meta explains on its help site. So you probably won’t have it yet.

The history lists all the links you clicked. Instagram and Facebook for the last 30 days and what you visit from the built-in browser of these applications. It is enabled by default, but you can disable it at any time. “If you enable link history, we may use browser history information from Facebook and Instagram for mobile to improve your advertising using meta technologies,” the company explains.

When you disable a new feature, Meta may take up to 90 days to complete deleting all of your history. Platforms links visited from chats will not be included in the post Messenger and Instagram.

On Facebook, you can view your history or disable it on the page Parameter. On Instagram you will find it in the section Your activitiesin the main menu of your profile.

Your privacy when using the Facebook and Instagram browser

Meta actually always tracks the links you click when you use Facebook or Instagram. Felix Krauseautomation app developer Fastlane, revealed in mid-2022 how these social networks are using the browser integrated into their apps to “inject a tracker.”

Browsers built into apps like Facebook and Instagram make it easy to access related content without leaving those platforms. But they also allow companies like Meta to record your every interaction on an external site. According to Krause, this ranges from clicking on an ad to opening another link, selecting text or even taking a screenshot. Other apps, including TikTok, do the same.

At the time, Meta justified this form of monitoring by emphasizing that Users consent to having their data tracked by apps like Facebook and Instagram.. The company said the information is used for targeted advertising or unspecified “measurement purposes.” So in practice, Meta makes a new link history by providing visibility to its crawling engine. Almost an illusion of control.

Counterflow

When it comes to privacy issues, Meta goes against the grain. Apple, for example, has introduced a privacy control for iPhones called App Tracking Transparency since 2020. Google is set to conduct its first controlled test of removing cookies from Chrome users.

But regulators are also trying to apply pressure. Early 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 Authority explicitly banned it from using the personal information of European citizens to serve them ads based on their behavior.

Meta has now decided to create a new paid version Facebook And instagram for Europe, which will allow you to view both social networks without seeing advertising. But the commitment to privacy is not improving, as the company itself explains. Paying a monthly subscription in no way prevents the tracking of personal data, but only ensures that it will not be used for advertising purposes.