Technology @lemmy.world s38b35M5 @lemmy.world 1 yr. ago

Ally (bank)mobile app fails without connection to graph.facebook.com

Not sure if this is a good place for this post or not, but here goes.

I reject outbound connections to meta domains at the firewall. I noticed this banking app refuses to prompt for login credentials unless I am on mobile or a public WiFi network. I watched my FW logs and noticed many rejected connections to graph[.]facebook[.]com.

I contacted their support team, but they denied the connection was their app. I shared the screenshot on this post and they closed my case without comment.

I emailed the address on the Google play store and they also denied the connection was their app. I shared the screenshot and they asked if I downloaded the app from the play store, implying the official app doesn't do this, but of course it does.They closed my case without proper resolution as well.

Just thought I'd share this here so people know that some banks make direct connections to Facebook to share analytics, without your knowledge or informed consent, and they lie about it when called on it.

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90 comments

I know a software developer that worked for Ally when they were adding this. They all said it was a terrible idea, but were ignored. The reason they claim it’s needed is to track app installs that originate from an ad on Facebook. Since the App Store sits in between the ad click and App launch, there isn’t an easy way to track it without that. But, it shouldn’t be blocking you from logging in.
- I'd bet you bottom dollar Ally is selling their customers' financial information to Meta, and this is a manifestation of that.
  
  I wouldn’t doubt it.
  
  Might not even be selling it, could just be an arrangement to use some sort of "sign in with facebook" service or even advertise on facebook marketplace/adverts
  
  So you see, Your Honour, we didn't sell Facebook any data - we just sold Facebook the ability to harvest our users data directly.
- I remember we had to build an obj-c wrapper for FB's calls like these because of these crashes, that basically ignored the stall and continued the user's session regardless
- Since the App Store sits in between the ad click and App launch, there isn’t an easy way to track it without that.
  
  How does that work exactly? Does the App Store pass along some information to newly installed apps or something? My company's app, which I worked on for some time, also uses an external service to track installs (not Facebook or any social media), but I didn't work on the implementation of it and never really got to grips on how it works.
  
  App store doesn't, the app itself does, that's why this thing is included in it.
  
  You click an ad on FB = you're ID'd by a cookie or login or account on the device or fingerprint or whatever (probably all of the above)
  
  You install the app from app store. Neither the bank or FB knows this.
  
  You launch the app. The integrated FB library reads the cookie or FB account on the device or whatever it can, and pings FB. FB compares this ID to the entries and finds that it was you who clicked the ad.
  
  FB bills bank for an ad click
  
  Another option is there to be a specific FB variant of the app with its own app store entry, but they probably wouldn't do that for something this trivial.
  
  That’s a good question and I’m not entirely sure. I am just saying what they told me. Sorry!

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