Mobile application data sharing is "out of control"

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Data collection and sharing via mobile applications are "uncontrollable," researchers at Oxford University warned.

According to the Financial Times, nearly 90% of free apps on the Google Play Store share data with Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Google said it has clear rules on how developers can handle data and that the search has misread some "common features" of applications.

"If an application violates our rules, we act," said the giant online.

Many free apps follow the behavior of many digital services, allowing businesses to create a detailed profile of app users.

These data can include age, gender, location and information about other apps on a smartphone.

The data can then be used for a variety of purposes, including targeted advertising, credit scoring, or targeted campaign messages, the researchers said in an article.

Online advertising revenues rise to more than $ 59 billion a year in the United States alone, they said.

And many people do not know how data flows from smartphones to advertising groups, data brokers and other intermediaries, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, head of the research team, told the BBC.

"People [in businesses] are desperate to get as many eyeballs and clicks as possible, "he said.

Researcher Max Van Kleek added, "I do not think there is a notion of control."

Pool of information

Data tends to be concentrated by large companies and their affiliates.

The researchers found that over 88% of free apps on Google Play shared information with companies owned by Alphabet.

Nearly 43 percent of apps shared data with Facebook, while significant percentages shared data with Twitter, Verizon, Microsoft, and Amazon companies.

News apps – and apps for kids – shared information with as many trackers, they found.

Google said: "Google and Google Play have clear rules and guidelines on how developers and third-party applications can manage data, and we ask developers to be transparent and ask for permission from Google. If an application violates our rules, we act. "

Google added that it did not agree with the methodology of the study.

"This confuses ordinary business services such as reporting and incident analysis and the way applications share data to deliver these services," said Google.

However, privacy activist Frederike Kaltheuner of Privacy International said it had become "impossible" for the average user to understand how his data was being used and to retreat.

"Companies follow people … and they use that data to profile and then target people in a way that most of us would find intrusive and very surprising," she said.

"It is no longer necessary to collect data to display" relevant ads "- it is about maximizing profits to the detriment of people's basic rights," Kaltheuner added.