Meta: Difference between revisions - Consumer Rights Wiki

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====Tracking pixel====

The Meta tracking pixel can be added to websites to track user behavior.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meta Pixel |url=https://www.facebook.com/business/tools/meta-pixel/ |website=Meta}}</ref> The tracking tool has faced several lawsuits for violations of privacy laws. The lawsuits range from websites failing to disclose the use of the tracking tool Meta pixel to outright declaring the tool illegal. In 2023, the Austrian DSB decided the technology is illegal, as it cannot guarantee data is not shared back to data centers located in US from the EU.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 Mar 2023 |title=Austrian DSB: Meta Tracking Tools Illegal |url=https://noyb.eu/en/austrian-dsb-meta-tracking-tools-illegal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316064216/https://noyb.eu/en/austrian-dsb-meta-tracking-tools-illegal |archive-date=16 Mar 2023 |access-date=8 Mar 2025 |website=NOYB – European Center for Digital Rights}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Brunoli |first=Joseph |date=17 Mar 2023 |title=Austrian regulators declare Meta tracking tools are illegal |url=https://www.techzine.eu/news/privacy-compliance/103329/austrian-regulators-declare-meta-tracking-tools-are-illegal/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320095247/https://www.techzine.eu/news/privacy-compliance/103329/austrian-regulators-declare-meta-tracking-tools-are-illegal/ |archive-date=20 Mar 2023 |access-date=8 Mar 2025 |website=Techzine Europe}}</ref> At that time there was legal uncertainty regarding these data transfers, as the privacy framework for EU-US data transfers was annulled in 2020. This legal grey area was entered again in 2025, as [[The US undermines the Transatlantic Data Privacy Framework with the EU by firing PCLOB staff|the current privacy framework with the US faces uncertainty]].

==== Artificial permission requirements in Android App ====

The Facebook Android App summarily requests a lot of permissions. Most of those can be denied if unwanted. However, when the unlimited permission to access all media files on the user's phone is not granted, it is not possible to share images from the app. This is a completely bogus requirement, technically this permission is not needed. The app will guide the user into enabling that permission when they [first] try to share an image. Notably, even granting limited access will trigger the "more permissions required" guidance.

As a crude workaround, one can take screenshots of images in the app instead of using its sharing functionality. Since that yields images in screen resolution, this workaround may not be suitable in all cases.

''[Anecdote follows, is there a better place for information like this?]'' This seems especially concerning since the app recently suggested that I post a "story", by putting together its suggestion of one. In that story, it used a picture I have in my camera roll - interestingly, a picture that is years old, that actually shows me, and I'm only partially dressed - it's a picture I took in a fitting booth that did not have good mirrors available. Possibly complete coincidence, but since only a very small percentage of pictures in my camera roll actually show me, it strongly suggests some algorithmic stuff going on. Which leaves the question, does that algorithm really run completely locally on the phone, or are images uploaded to Meta that the user never OK'd for this?

===Meta Oculus VR===

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 ====Tracking pixel====
 The Meta tracking pixel can be added to websites to track user behavior.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meta Pixel |url=https://www.facebook.com/business/tools/meta-pixel/ |website=Meta}}</ref> The tracking tool has faced several lawsuits for violations of privacy laws. The lawsuits range from websites failing to disclose the use of the tracking tool Meta pixel to outright declaring the tool illegal. In 2023, the Austrian DSB decided the technology is illegal, as it cannot guarantee data is not shared back to data centers located in US from the EU.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 Mar 2023 |title=Austrian DSB: Meta Tracking Tools Illegal |url=https://noyb.eu/en/austrian-dsb-meta-tracking-tools-illegal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316064216/https://noyb.eu/en/austrian-dsb-meta-tracking-tools-illegal |archive-date=16 Mar 2023 |access-date=8 Mar 2025 |website=NOYB – European Center for Digital Rights}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Brunoli |first=Joseph |date=17 Mar 2023 |title=Austrian regulators declare Meta tracking tools are illegal |url=https://www.techzine.eu/news/privacy-compliance/103329/austrian-regulators-declare-meta-tracking-tools-are-illegal/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320095247/https://www.techzine.eu/news/privacy-compliance/103329/austrian-regulators-declare-meta-tracking-tools-are-illegal/ |archive-date=20 Mar 2023 |access-date=8 Mar 2025 |website=Techzine Europe}}</ref> At that time there was legal uncertainty regarding these data transfers, as the privacy framework for EU-US data transfers was annulled in 2020. This legal grey area was entered again in 2025, as [[The US undermines the Transatlantic Data Privacy Framework with the EU by firing PCLOB staff|the current privacy framework with the US faces uncertainty]].
+==== Artificial permission requirements in Android App ====
+The Facebook Android App summarily requests a lot of permissions. Most of those can be denied if unwanted. However, when the unlimited permission to access all media files on the user's phone is not granted, it is not possible to share images from the app. This is a completely bogus requirement, technically this permission is not needed. The app will guide the user into enabling that permission when they [first] try to share an image. Notably, even granting limited access will trigger the "more permissions required" guidance.
+As a crude workaround, one can take screenshots of images in the app instead of using its sharing functionality. Since that yields images in screen resolution, this workaround may not be suitable in all cases.
+''[Anecdote follows, is there a better place for information like this?]'' This seems especially concerning since the app recently suggested that I post a "story", by putting together its suggestion of one. In that story, it used a picture I have in my camera roll - interestingly, a picture that is years old, that actually shows me, and I'm only partially dressed - it's a picture I took in a fitting booth that did not have good mirrors available. Possibly complete coincidence, but since only a very small percentage of pictures in my camera roll actually show me, it strongly suggests some algorithmic stuff going on. Which leaves the question, does that algorithm really run completely locally on the phone, or are images uploaded to Meta that the user never OK'd for this?
 ===Meta Oculus VR===