I was browsing the Your off-Facebook activity part of Facebook today and was very surprised to find my bank, Monzo listed on there.
This did take my by surprise as i’m very careful with app permissions on my device and try to prevent apps from leaking data to other apps and services as much as possible. I have LineageOS flashed to my Android device which has an excellent privacy guard feature, allowing app permissions to be locked down a lot more compared to stock Android on other devices.
That got me thinking Monzo must have some how informed Facebook i’m using their services, as Facebook cant really access anything on my device. It turns out Monzo do send data to Facebook: What information does Monzo share with Facebook? “The only thing we share with Facebook is your ‘advertising ID’, this is a unique identifier assigned to every device by Facebook.”
Monzo’s justifications for doing this makes sense, however they are indirectly giving Facebook access to their own customer database by sending Facebook this data. Facebook can clearly identify everyone who banks with Monzo and also uses Facebook:
Maybe its just me, however with the whole Cambridge Analytica scandal this does seem a bit careless. I accept Facebook will gather some data about me in exchange for using their services, however it does seem a bit unethical my bank is allowing Facebook to identify me as a customer.
Is it possible to opt out of sending Facebook this data?