People still need to learn how much private data tech companies collect, primarily through the permissions we grant when installing apps on our phones.
The Green Smartphones, an Ofcom-accredited smartphone comparison site, has discovered that most of its user’s data includes:
- personal info
- financial info
- media files
- messages
- contacts
- files and documents
- calendar
- health and fitness info
- app activity
- web browsing history
- location
- device IDs and many more
According to the data, all of Meta’s brands, including Facebook, Messenger, Threads and Instagram, must access all of the application settings. The company shares data with third parties.
Followed by TikTok and Snapchat.
However, Tiktok shares its user’s data with third parties. While Snapchat doesn’t.
They’ve analysed the kinds of data collected by each of the top 50 free apps in the Google Play Store according to developer security disclosures.
In 2021, Apple began blocking third-party tracking cookies in its Safari web browser, and Google plans to do the same in its Chrome browser next year.
After launching the EU Digital Services Act in August, Facebook has recently been forced to stop placing targeted ads on minors in Europe.
Green Smart Phones also shared tips to protect a user’s privacy:
Uninstall any apps that are not in use – Check your installed apps, mainly social media and shopping apps, or any free apps from small, untrustworthy developers, and remove any that you don’t use regularly.
Review app permissions: On most modern smartphones, You can check which types of private data each downloaded app is accessing and delete permissions if you want. You’ll see a list of different types of personal information and the apps that have access to it.
This will make it possible to limit data sharing so that you can only use information needed for each application. You can do this with the following steps:
- On iOS, go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
- On Android, go to Settings > Privacy > Permission Manager.
Turn off location services – You can also turn off the location services entirely and then turn them on again as needed, such as when travelling, if you’re concerned about apps tracking your location history. To turn off location services:
- On iOS, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.
- On Android, go to Settings > Privacy > Location, swipe down from the top of the screen to open the system tray, and tap the “Location” icon.
Take advantage of your right to be forgotten – You can ask companies to delete your private data in line with EU and UK legislation on General Data Protection Regulation. It’s known as the right to be forgotten.
Even though no legislation in other countries, such as the United States, enshrines a right to be forgotten, many tech companies allow people worldwide to have their data erased.
If you use an app for a long time without fully knowing the amount of data it’s collecting and don’t like someone else to store such information, this can be helpful.
You will need to contact the app developer you are using and request that your data be deleted if you want to benefit from the right not to be remembered.
Carefully review data access rights when installing new apps –
You can see which types of personal data it can access when installing a new app on the App Store or Google Play. Before installing an application, carefully review what information the app is allowed to access.
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