A US judge has written that Meta exploited vulnerabilities to intentionally violate the privacy of Android users. The company is being taken to court by its victims.

There is a fundamental difference between using known functionality of a system in an unexpected way and employing subterfuge to exploit design flaws that are not broadly known.

Meta, nee Facebook, was desperate to violate privacy in order to serve users highly targeted advertisement campaigns.

When an Android user used a browser anonymously to visit any webpage tainted with Meta’s highly common “Meta Pixel” code, the exploit pulled in tracked names, email addresses, button click data, and more (personal information on their Facebook and Instagram apps).