Meta’s Loophole Lament: The Localhost Listening Saga Unveiled!
Security researchers revealed that Meta and Yandex used native Android apps to listen on localhost ports, linking web browsing data to user identities. After the disclosure, Meta stopped sending data to localhost, which might help them dodge Google’s Play Store policies. It’s a crafty move to bypass common privacy safeguards!
Hot Take:
Meta and Yandex are taking the “home is where the data is” approach a bit too literally. By setting up shop on localhost, they’ve managed to find a sneaky way to crash the privacy party and bypass the bouncers — but not without raising a few eyebrows (and potentially a few lawsuits) along the way.
Key Points:
- Meta and Yandex used native Android apps to tap into localhost ports, linking web data to user identities.
- Meta has paused the use of this feature after researchers shone a light on its practices.
- The discovery complicates how we view first-party cookies and privacy protection assumptions.
- Several browsers are implementing countermeasures to block these sneaky techniques.
- Google is considering a new “local network access” permission to curb localhost tracking.
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