According to recent research, most well-known mobile apps reportedly gather sensitive user information and share it with third parties, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Researchers from TechShielder examined the most popular mobile apps in 2021, poring over their privacy policies to better understand how they handle data collection, keeping, and sharing.
As it turns out, 60% of the most popular mobile apps collect and retain data from individuals’ private interactions. In addition, 80% of these companies track their customers’ send and received messages. Last but not least, all mobile apps collect at least the bare minimum of data, like email addresses or phone numbers.
Cookie and user-generated content storage
In addition to critical information, most apps seek cookies and tiny files containing vital data like login credentials. Over two-thirds (60%) keep user-generated content data in storage, and a half (50%) have access to the images, and videos users save on their endpoints.
Since the general public learned more about the financial benefits that corporations derive from collecting user data, awareness of online privacy has exploded in recent years. But unfortunately, the number of data breaches increased as most businesses evolved into data businesses.
As a result, there was more fraud, which ultimately resulted in more money being lost. As a result, law enforcement and legislators have entered the fray with more robust legal frameworks (think GDPR) and quicker responses to safeguard customers.
Customers are torn between sharing data with businesses to receive more personalised offers and a better user experience, maintaining their privacy, and protecting themselves from potential cybercriminals who may commit identity theft.
Businesses are caught between the need to collect data and use it to outperform the competition and the desire of hackers to take advantage of any gaps in data security.