App privacy research looks at most of the ‘invasive’ apps that collect user data

With App Privacy labels available for many of the best apps in the App Store, earlier this month pCloud looked at the most “invasive” apps that collect the most data from users.

It will come as no surprise to many that Instagram and Facebook share most of the data with third-party advertisers, collecting information about purchases, location, contact information, user content, search history, browsing history, and more.

Instagram collects 79 percent of the personal data, while Facebook collects 57 percent. LinkedIn and Uber Eats were also serious offenders, collecting 50 percent of the data. This research was conducted 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 the personal data for sharing with third parties.

eBay, TikTok, Duolingo, Deliveroo and Trainline were all in the top 10 data collection apps, with Reddit, Snapchat, Spotify, Pandora, ESPN and CNN in the top 20.

Every time you search for a video on YouTube, 42% of your personal information is sent elsewhere. This data then informs the types of ads you 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 browsing history and personal information with others online.

YouTube isn’t the worst when it comes to selling your information up. That prize goes to Instagram, which shares a whopping 79% of your data with other companies. Includes everything from purchase information, personal data and browsing history. No wonder there is so much promoted content on your feed.

With more than 1 billion monthly active users, it is worrying that Instagram is a hub for sharing such a large amount of unwitting user data.

Apps that collect data for use by third parties do so for targeting purposes and share the information between different apps and websites. Apps also collect data to market their own products, with Facebook and Instagram again collecting most of the data in this category.

At the other end of the spectrum, apps that don’t collect much data include Signal, Clubhouse, Netflix, Shazam, Etsy, Skype, and Telegram.

Starting with the launch of iOS 14.5, Apple will ask apps that access a user’s ad ID for cross-app and website tracking for explicit permission before using it, which can help reduce third-party data sharing .

Before downloading an app, it is always worth checking the App Privacy label to see what information is being collected, especially in the sections’ Information used to track you ‘and’ Information that belongs to you. linked ‘, which contain data collected for third party advertising and for the developer’s own advertising or marketing.