Surfshark recently conducted a study of iOS apps and found that collectively browsers gather the least amount of information on users—some don’t aggregate any. However, dozens of…
In context: It used to be that companies mostly tracked users through their web browsers. While this type of data collection is still done, it is falling out of favor as many browsers tighten down on privacy. The big moneymaker for data brokers these days is your smartphone. Surfshark recently conducted a study of iOS apps and found that collectively browsers gather the least amount of information on users—some don’t aggregate any. However, dozens of other apps and services want to know a lot more about you than you would like them to know. Keep in mind that collected data here means information a company may share, not the data needed to make its app function. It probably comes as no surprise that topping the list of data hogs is Facebook. Combing through the new App Store privacy » nutrition labels » and the policies of the studied companies, Surfshark found that the Facebook app collects 32 points of data in all of Apple’s 14 different categories. This cache includes five types of user content, four kinds of contact information, the user’s search history, and even three types of financial info.
