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One thing that definitely hasnt changed is the extent to which apps harvest our personal data for corporate gain.
Our personal information ends up vulnerable todata breaches, abuse, and outright spying.
Data collection whats the big deal?
Theres a reasonable amount of data that every app needs to work.
Its easy to think of Google as a just search engine, but its true business is data.
All you gotta do is turn off ad personalization in your Google Account.
Id recommend just turning it off altogether but youll be served generic ads instead if you do.
SpotifySpotify may seem harmless on the surface, but its far greedier for data than youd expect.
Check out our rankings of today’sbest VPNsfor all the details.
Had a Bob Marley phase over the summer?
No, thats not hyperbole.
Spotify collects every song you play, when its played, and where its played.
Meta productsMeta, formerly Facebook, is now a multi-product data company that also owns WhatsApp and Instagram.
Meta is also in the business of selling advertising space.
Its easy to see why mapping data collects this data: It helps optimize their services.
Imagine a malicious navigation app that is actually collecting your data to enable burglaries, for example.
Food delivery appsApps like UberEats and DoorDash collect far more data than just your address.
Definitely not ideal if youre trying to stick to a diet.
Its not just takeaway apps that are guilty of this, either.
The tradeoff here is your privacy.
TikTokLast but not least, one of the biggest talking points of the year for privacy purists.
TikTok has come under heavy scrutiny in 2024 for its data collection and the potential security repercussions of this.
This also includes data surrounding the content you create, such as audio and video uploaded to the platform.
It doesn’t stop there either.
It would almost be easier to ask what isn’t collected by TikTok at this stage.
