Ops … Why is Facebook interested in my culinary tastes on Faasos portal?

Pierluigi Paganini April 29, 2018

During checkout from faasos, I observed that there are several requests going to Facebook, which carries your Faasos details without user’s consent.

I reported the issue to Facebook that closed my report saying:

Unfortunately what you have described is not currently covered by this program, We will follow up with you regarding any questions we may have.” (Data Abuse BBP).

So, let’s start from the beginning of the story, you will be aware with the “Cambridge Analytica” case, after its public disclosure Facebook launched “Data Abuse Bounty Program” – 9th April 2018.

Well, we all are aware that we have been tracked for years! Whatever we search on the Internet no matter what object it is, in a day or hours it will be on your suggestion or an advertisement banner.

This is the most recent example: Google is always listening: Live Test

I really love eating veg warps from faasos and it was a normal day when I did a checkout and ordered few of them, however, I have a very bad habit of capturing packets.

What I observed was, there were few `GET` & `POST` request of Facebook as well in between checkout of Faasos at that time I didn’t pay much attention to it. On the same day, I created a test account on Faasos to dig more and clicked on some random wraps, went till checkout and guess what I was still able to see those Facebook request.

I cleared all my history, cookies etc. for the entire day, and thought of doing again, All the request start from login to Faasos, and browsing your items in it.

Goes only to `*faasos.io` based asset but as soon as you press checkout a `GET` request goes to Facebook which carries my juicy information of Faasos which also include my ordering details. (Strange) Apart from that, I start getting suggestions on my Facebook wall regarding Faasos.

Faasos Facebook Cookie

Okay, then I thought of reporting it to Facebook under Data Abuse Bounty Program and we had a long discussion about this, they (Facebook Security Team) also told me to connect with Faasos Security team and I did the same.

However, Faasos security team are not much active, they finally replied me after 4-5 days saying:

“Hey Dhiraj, This tool helps us understand the customer better and show them more appropriate adverts.”

I asked them specifically about tool and where it is been deployed and what all it collects – No reply yet, that’s bad I “personally”  feel Faasos been a data-broker over here.

While collecting such info Faasos don’t even take user’s consent. I have seen many application’s which take users consent for such things.

And they also offer you to Opt-out of not been tracking. Pheewww! Now, I understand how all these things work!

I would suggest you all watching this:

That gives lot more understanding of my bug as well, or specifically look the above video from 3.47.25 to 3.51.40 Mins.

On safer side, I would suggest you to enable “Do Not Track Me” on your browser.
Video PoC of my Bug: Facebook Tracking PoC via Faasos.  I hope you like the read. Tweet me your views @mishradhiraj_
About the Author: Security Researcher Dhiraj Mishra ()
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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Data Abuse Bounty Program, privacy)

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