Since App privacy labels are now available for many of the best apps in the App Store, pCloud took a look at the “most intrusive” apps that collect the most data from users earlier this month.
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It will come as no surprise to many that Instagram and Facebook share the most data with third-party advertisers, collecting information about purchases, location, contact details, user content, search history, browser history and more.
Instagram collects 79 percent of personal data, while Facebook collects 57 percent. LinkedIn and Uber Eats were also serious offenders, collecting 50 percent of the data. This study was done before Google App shared privacy labels for its Google Search and Chrome apps, but YouTube and YouTube Music were found to collect 43 percent of personal data to share with third parties.
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eBay, TikTok, Duolingo, Deliveroo and Trainline were all in the top 10 data collection apps, with Reddit, Snapchat, Spotify, Pandora, ESPN and CNN being the top 20.
Every time you search for a video on YouTube, 42% of your personal data is sent elsewhere. This information contains information about the types of ads you will see before and during videos, and is also sold to brands that will target you on other social media platforms. Instagram shares 79% of your data, including browser history and personal information, with others online.
YouTube is not the worst when it comes to selling information. The award goes to Instagram, which shares 79% of your data with other companies. Including everything from purchasing information, personal data and browser history. No wonder there is so much promotional content in your feed.
With over 1 billion monthly active users, it is worrying that Instagram is a hub for sharing such a large amount of data from its ignorant users.
Applications that collect data for third-party use do so for target purposes and share the information on various applications and websites. Apps also collect data to market their own products, with Facebook and Instagram again collecting the most data in this category.
At the other end of the spectrum, programs that do not collect much data include Signal, Clubhouse, Netflix, Shazam, Etsy, Skype, and Telegram.
Starting with the launch of iOS 14.5, Apple will start asking apps that have access to a user’s cross-app and website tracking ad identifier to obtain explicit permission before using it, which may help reduce of some of the third party data.
Before downloading an app, it’s always worth checking the App Privacy Label to see what data is being collected, mainly in the “Data used to track you” and “Given to your linked data “, which contains the data collected for third parties. advertising and for the developer’s own advertising or marketing.