Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

19•juliusceasar•1h ago

It was discussed a year ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44235467

Comments

KomoD•1h ago

Looks like they stopped doing it

https://localmess.github.io

> UPDATE: As of June 3rd 7:45 CEST, Meta/Facebook Pixel script is no longer sending any packets or requests to localhost. The code responsible for sending the _fbp cookie has been almost completely removed. Yandex has also stopped the practice we describe below.

mozvalentin•1h ago

Chrome and Firefox have deployed / are deploying local-network-access which prompts the user when apps try this.

Tade0•54m ago

I've seen it and at least in Chrome it seems to be treating all URLs which are based on an IP address as "local", regardless of the class of the address.

kibwen•22m ago

I'd be inherently suspicious of any website in the wild attempting to contact a bare IP address. Aside from localhost, my default assumption would be that such a website is either trying to circumvent my hosts file (or circumvent my other DNS configuration, e.g. pi-hole or DNS-over-HTTPS), malware trying to reach a command-and-control server, or malware trying to circumvent my adblocker.

shit_game•54m ago

I was just about to say that my question in regards to this was "what are web browsers doing about it?"

pezgrande•11m ago

I guess that's why I am getting so many "Allow to find devices on your network" alerts. Good feature overall.

applfanboysbgon•59m ago

> Meta must face a lawsuit alleging that it secretly tracked Android users' browsing activity on mobile websites that embedded Meta's analytics pixel, and linked that activity to users' identities, a federal judge ruled Monday.

> The decision, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco, grew out of a class-action complaint initially brought last June by California resident Devin Rose (and later joined by other Android users).

> Rose alleged that between September 2024 and June 2025, Meta exploited Android's localhost -- a feature that allows software developers to test applications -- to connect users’ mobile web browsing to their Facebook and Instagram profiles.

May 12, 2026

gruez•6m ago

docket: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70448987/in-re-meta-and...

woodrowbarlow•49m ago

i would love to have a software engineer's union, not so much to get better working conditions but to be able to say stuff like "i can't implement that unethical feature, it's against union rules and i'd lose my membership".

absqueued•46m ago

Take a lead, let me sign up :)

hasahmed•24m ago

same

SoftTalker•3m ago

And this is why we don't have one. Someone else is expected to do the hard part.

volkercraig•23m ago

Start one. Unions are worker owned. You could also join the IWW.

theodorejb•2m ago

You don't need to join a union to push back against unethical feature requests.

throwa356262•7m ago

Off topic: I wonder how hard it is to poison this type of data gathering?

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Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

Comments

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