This highlights the lengths that data-hungry companies will go to in order to harvest user data, which is why it is important to use a browser that actively blocks these types of threats.

Here's a handy browser comparison: duckduckgo.com/compare-priv...

Facebook/Instagram apps would silently listen on those ports, copy identifiers in real time, and link them to the user logged into the app, thereby allowing them to spy on your browsing habits, unchecked.

Meta was basically misusing protocols by having it's tracking scripts (embedded on a huge percentage of websites) blast out information about Chrome/other affected browser users' browsing history, along with unique identifiers to local ports on Android.