Nearly 90% Android apps share data with Google: Study
What's the story
Almost all free Android apps are harvesting and sharing user data with Google, researchers from Oxford have revealed.
They analyzed as many as 959,000 apps and found signs of third-party information trackers designed to identify users and track their behavior across services.
The information collected, as they said, is helping the company build profiles and target users with ads.
Here are the finer details.
Study
Trackers from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon
The researchers analyzed the code of apps on the US and UK Google Play Store to uncover the trackers.
They found 88% of the analyzed apps shared data with Google's parent company Alphabet, while 43% and 34% of the apps shared data with Google.
Even Amazon and Microsoft were found collecting from 18% and 23% of the apps.
Information
News and children-focused apps collected largest chunk of data
Apps for news and children collected the biggest chunk of data with the most number of trackers. This, as the researchers said, could be leading to digital profiling of children without their parents' consent, which is "downright unlawful".
Details
What information the companies collected?
The companies, according to FT, could be using these trackers to collect information related to the age, gender, location, and devices of the users.
The data could then be used to build individual profiles with inferences about shopping habits, socio-economic class or even political opinions.
Finally, these profiles could be used for targeting users with relevant ads or serving them with political messages.
Do you know?
Revenues from online advertising
Thanks to the element of user data monetization, targeted online advertising generates as much as $59 billion in revenue in the US alone. However, most people are not aware of how data flows from smartphones to ads, study lead Nigel Shadbolt told BBC.
Google's response
Here's what Google said in response to the study
Disagreeing with the methodology used in the study, Google stated it has clear policies and guidelines for developers and data handling.
"It mischaracterizes ordinary functional services like crash reporting and analytics, and how apps share data to deliver those services," a company spokesperson said.
"We require developers to be transparent and ask for user permission. If an app violates our policies, we take action."
Fine print
What could sort things out?
Though no tech giant has been caught doing anything unethical with the data they've collected, users do raise alarms for transparency.
In such cases, companies should offer a more clear explanation of what data is being extracted, who has access to that information, and how it is being used.
Also, they should offer an easy-to-access tool to opt out of this data collection.