# Apple's in-app browsers may enable extensive tracking despite App Tracking Transparency

DevFeed: [Apple's in-app browsers may enable extensive tracking despite App Tracking Transparency](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/apple-vs-facebook-is-kayfabe-26553.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://infrequently.org/2025/08/apple-vs-fb-kayfabe/>)

Author: Alex Russell

Published: 2025-08-25T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Alex Russell](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/alex-russell.md>)

Topics: [WebView](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/webview.md>), [browser](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/browser.md>), [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/browsers.md>), [Web](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web.md>), [Internet](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/internet.md>)

Tags: [apple](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apple.md>), [browser](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browser.md>), [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browsers.md>), [facebook](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/facebook.md>), [in-app-browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/in-app-browsers.md>), [internet](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/internet.md>), [policy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/policy.md>), [privacy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/privacy.md>), [script](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/script.md>), [surveillance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/surveillance.md>), [web](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web.md>), [webview](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webview.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that Apple's App Tracking Transparency had little discernible effect on Facebook's revenue and that Apple continues to permit extensive tracking through in-app browsers. It says these WebViews can observe URLs and allow existing web tracking mechanisms to correlate in-app activity with browsing, while restricting users' access to their preferred browsers.

## Source excerpt

Photo by Claudia Raya Apple vs. Facebook is, and always was, kayfabe. In reality, Apple is Facebook's chauffeur; holding Zuck's coat while Facebook1 wantonly surveils iPhones owners.2 Facebook's gross profit over time. Facebook and Apple mugged convincingly for the cameras as "App Tracking Transparency" rolled out, talking up the impact to Facebook's business. But San Mateo's profits tell a very different story. Net income dipped between late 2021 and early 2023 thanks to accelerating capital expenditures, not reductions in revenue. Despite strenuous efforts to sell the move, it's hard to discern any impact from ATT whatsoever. How can we be sure Apple's wise? Because Cupertino continues to allow Facebook's wide-scale abuse of In-App Browsers: Open Web Advocacy - In-App Browser Primer Apple has long facilitated and enriched mass surveillance through native apps, both directly from in-app activity, but much more insidiously through the In-App Browsers that lurk behind every link in Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, TikTok, Pinterest, etc. I have written about them before, and they still stink to high heavens. Facebook couldn't ask for a better or more willing accomplice than Apple as it glides into the second decade of its browserjacking spree. In-App Browsers are, for Facebook's purposes, ad-blocker blockers. Cheat codes for the enterprising panopticon proprietor. Much wringing of hands transpires every time one of these knockoff browsers is suspected of injecting script into web pages. The fear is that this will enable a level of tracking by apps that is not otherwise possible. As scary (and real) as the threat is, it is also a misdirection. To effect total surveillance, Facebook et al. don't need to inject scripts into the runtime, they only need your browser not to block their "ad tags" that are already embedded in every high-traffic page on the internet. Combined with the ability to watch every URL you navigate to in a WebView, this is more than enough to