The tracking of personal data by third-party applications becomes uncontrollable – BGR

This should no longer be a surprise, but it is likely that Google and, to a lesser extent, Facebook access or can access a data flow about you through your favorite smartphone application. Data about you that you may not have realized without knowing that such third-party applications made them available and could be used to create a strangely accurate personal profile about you.

This is revealed by a new study by researchers at Oxford University on just under a million applications in Google Play stores in the United States and the United Kingdom. Among the other results, their study revealed, by Internal business"How tremendously (of these applications) are configured to transfer data to large technology companies."According to the study, "88% of applications could ultimately transmit the data to Alphabet, the parent company of Google. This places Google at the top of the list of potential recipients of third-party application data. "

The Financial Times First, the researchers' findings include the fact that shared information about users via third-party applications could include information such as age, gender, and location. The median application was able to transfer this data to five tracking companies, which could then forward them to companies such as Google, and among the worst offenders detected, apps aimed at kids as well as news apps .

You can view the full study here. It then explains how these third party followers use third-party mobile apps to link the activities of users of multiple apps to one person, as well as that person's activities on other devices and elsewhere on the web. The researchers explain, among other things, that data collection "allows the construction of detailed profiles of individuals, which could include inferences about purchasing habits, socio-economic class or likely political opinions. These profiles can then be used for a variety of purposes, from targeted advertising to credit scoring and targeted campaign messages. "

Add to that another report from Bloomberg Businessweek, which found a prevalence of companies able to follow you after uninstalling applications and send you messages prompting you to download them again. Through stories such as this one and others, we are being reminded one by one of a kind of private sector surveillance state that is becoming increasingly stronger – and less likely, it seems to be restrained.

A spokesman for Google challenged the Oxford researchers' study. He issued a statement that the company did not agree with the methodology and the results. The study goes on to say that the study does not describe "ordinary functional services" such as reporting and analyzing incidents, as well as how applications share data to deliver these services.

Nevertheless, Frederike Kaltheuner, Head of Data Operations at Privacy International, said Internal business These types of tactics are no longer about collecting data to provide users with a personalized, relevant and relevant advertising experience. "It's a matter of profit maximization, he said, at the expense of the basic rights of people."

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