Users should only open the app for these services so that their information ends up in the hands of the social network
According to reports of cybersecurity experts from the International Institute of Cyber Security, various
travel apps, such as TripAdvisor, Skyscanner or Yelp, have shared a large
amount of personal information of their users (specifically Android users) with
Facebook, regardless of whether
customers had a Facebook account or whether it was linked to their accounts in
these services.
Privacy International (PI), a UK-based non-profit organization, has reported on this
incident: “An example of this is the Kayak app (used for travel search and
price comparison). This app sends to Facebook detailed information about the
searches that its users carry out, such as flight schedules, departure dates,
airports or airlines.”
The NGO has carried out an analysis of the data
that these applications have provided to the social network, identifying that
much of this information is tied to the category of “personal data” of the
European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). PI ensures that
these data, albeit indirectly, may be useful for the identification of many of
the users of these services.
“Advertisers try to link data about user
behavior across different platforms. If all of these data from different sites
are combined, you can set up a detailed user profile, including interests, routines,
or online activity,” the PI report mentions.
Cybersecurity experts found that services such
as TripAdvisor, Skyscanner, Kayak and Yelp sent to Facebook the users’ data at
the time of starting the app. Among other data, PI mentions that apps send to
Facebook information such as device configuration, location, language and time
zone.
According to reports of cybersecurity
specialists, both Skyscanner and TripAdvisor assured PI that they were unaware
of this fact, thanking the NGO for alerting their teams about these drawbacks.
Skyscanner published a statement mentioning that: “Since we received these
reports we launched a priority update for our app, so it will stop sending
information to Facebook. Also, we will begin an audit in our systems to make
the necessary modifications to guarantee the respect to the privacy of our
users”.
On the other hand, Facebook keeps generating
scandals related to the users’ privacy. Last December, several media reported
that the social network shared the private messages of its users with services
such as Netflix, Spotify and even a Canadian bank. Also, cybersecurity
researchers said that Facebook gave Microsoft, Sony, Amazon, among others, the
ability to get the email addresses of their users’ contacts for a long time
until 2017, in addition to granting manufacturers like Apple the ability to implement
special features on their devices when connected to the Facebook platform.
Some companies consider the way in which
Facebook collects information is too aggressive, so it damages the trust that
users may have in travel services, purchases, etc.