Facebook No Longer Generates Previews of Links Shared in Messenger and Instagram for Users in Europe
https://www.macrumors.comIn October last year, Bakry and Mysk revealed that link previews in popular messaging apps can lead to security and privacy issues on iOS and Android. It was discovered that apps could leak IP addresses, expose links sent in end-to-end encrypted chats, download large files without users’ consent, and copy private data through link previews.
In that report, Bakry and Mysk found that Facebook Messenger and Instagram behaved unlike other messaging apps in that they downloaded the entire contents of any link to its servers, regardless of size. When questioned about this unusual behavior, Facebook reportedly said that it considers this to be “working as intended.”
A follow-up report by security researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk has alleged that Facebook Messenger and Instagram are collecting and using data from link previews in a way that would breach European privacy law.
In Europe, this use of personal data now requires explicit consent from users even if it is approved by Facebook’s Terms of Service. Link previews continue to be available in Messenger and Instagram for users outside Europe.
