A Washington Post tech columnist has raised alarm about privacy breaches involving Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps, claiming that researchers found these apps were siphoning user data through a digital back door for months. The study revealed that Meta and Yandex circumvented privacy and security protections set by Google for Android devices, with no privacy setting being able to block the data harvesting. The columnist warns that these tactics highlight vulnerabilities in web browsers and apps, urging users to switch to more privacy-focused alternatives like Mozilla’s Firefox, Brave, and DuckDuckGo. For iPhone and Mac users, Safari offers strong privacy protections, although no browser is completely foolproof. The article also advises deleting Meta and Yandex apps, as these companies can access sensitive information such as location data, battery levels, and connected devices. Even without using Meta apps, the company might still track user activity across the web, according to the researchers.