At first glance, browsers integrated into popular apps like Facebook and Twitter offer convenience to users who want to read a page All very well, users face massive privacy and security risks, as recent reports have highlighted.
In-app browsers allow mobile users to follow links and read web pages without leaving the app they’re using. But it is difficult to control who ends up with the data traces created by these browser activities and what personal information may end up in the hands of the application maker.
It’s not an Android or iOS issue, but the problem is common, and it’s relevant to any smartphone. Although it apple (iOS) that is Google (Android) demands the same rules apply to in-app browsers that apply to any other part of an app they distribute in their app stores, requiring both tech giants to disclose any information they collect as part of their own apps. Privacy Policy.
In-app browsers contain code that allows app owners to track you
Google also claims that as part of automated app scans to search for data collected through in-app browsers Google Play Store. On the other side of the operating system, Apple’s policies also prohibit particularly serious abuses, such as surreptitiously discovering passwords or other personal data. All useless, it seems. Or, more precisely, a fleeting pleasure.
Indeed, security researcher Felix Krauss has recently published several findings, including a report on TikTok last week and previous looks at Instagram and Facebook, which suggest that many in-app browsers contain code that gives app owners the ability to monitor content. Users tap, click or type.
“App developers have the potential to collect more information about users when they use an in-app browser to open links“Words from the experts axios, Which continues: “This may increase the collection of more confidential information and security risks.”
On the same wavelength, Nick Doty, a researcher specializing in Internet architecture Center for Democracy and Technology. “Simple changes to in-app browsers allow platforms to easily track when someone types, clicks a link, or taps the screen.“True, for heaven’s sake.
“But with in-app browsers, users typically don’t realize they’ve switched to a different environment that may have different data collection practices — they might just think of using the default mobile browser like Safari or Chrome.” A test that comes from a third formula Dottie, Always in an Axios report.
