A number of popular iOS apps are collecting personal data without users’ knowledge.
After hooking an iPhone up to monitoring software, The Washington Post discovered that more than 5,400 app trackers were sending data from the device to third parties.
The scope of data collected are wide ranging, with trackers sweeping up sensitive information like emails, phone numbers, IP addresses and a user’s exact location, among other things.
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After hooking an iPhone up to monitoring software, The Washington Post discovered that more than 5,400 app trackers were sending data from the device to third parties
App trackers are often busiest at night, when the device owner is asleep, or at times when a smartphone isn’t being used.
They often take advantage of Apple’s ‘Background App Refresh’ feature, which allows apps to transmit data when they’re not actively being used, primarily for the purpose of making sure they’re up to date when you return to the app.
While they may improve the user experience, the Post found that the process ends up passing sensitive information onto third-party tracking companies, such as Amplitude, Appboy and Demdex.
The data collected and shared with these companies amounted to 1.5 gigabytes in total, which for some users, can equate to half their monthly data allotment.
Microsoft’s OneDrive, Intuit’s Mint, Nike, Spotify, the Weather Channel, the Washington Post, Yelp, Citizen and DoorDash are just a few of the many apps whose trackers slurp up large amounts of personal data.
‘This is your data. Why should it even leave your phone? Why should it be collected by someone when you don’t know what they’re going to do with it?’ Patrick Jackson, chief technology officer for privacy firm Disconnect, told the Post.
‘I know the value of data, and I don’t want mine in any hands where it doesn’t need to be.’
App trackers are hard to block, unlike cookies, which are pieces of browser code that follow you around the internet, largely because it’s easy for the trackers to go unnoticed, according to the Post.
Many of the apps use trackers to see what users are clicking on, so that the companies can gauge what their user activity looks like on a more granular level.
Apple famously declares that ‘What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.’ However, a bombshell report has discovered that users’ personal data is closely watched by app trackers
In other cases, the trackers are used so that third party companies can target ads more effectively in the app.
The main issue is that some apps don’t explicitly state what data is collected, how long its stored and who can access it in an upfront matter.
The Post found that the Yelp app was sending data to trackers every five minutes – something the company later discovered was a result of a bug.
Food delivery app DoorDash was discovered to be using nine trackers in its apps.
The trackers collected data like addresses, names, emails, device name, unique ad identifier and even accelerometer data for the purpose of spotting fraudsters.
DoorDash said it doesn’t sell or share data with third parties, but its privacy policy states that the firm ‘is not responsible for the privacy practices of these entities,’ according to the Post.
With the amount of sensitive data being tracked by popular apps, many believe the onus falls on Apple to better control them, since it distributes the iOS software they run on.
‘At Apple we do a great deal to help users keep their data private,’ the firm told the Post.
‘Apple hardware and software are designed to provide advanced security and privacy at every level of the system.’
It does provide some controls, such as the ability to turn off Background App Refresh, as well as tools like Limit Ad Tracking and Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which help prevent apps and sites from serving targeted ads to your device.
But the company could also consider requiring apps to be more transparent about the trackers they use so that, over time, users are better aware of how their data is being monitored.
