Report: 55% of apps obtainable on Google Play share consumer information

Whereas learning the Google Play information security part, researchers at Incogni discovered that 55.2% of apps declare sharing consumer information. Amongst these, free apps share, on common, seven occasions as many information factors as their paid counterparts.

Standard apps yielded comparable outcomes, sharing 6.15 occasions extra information than much less fashionable ones. The huge disparity between the data-sharing insurance policies of paid and unpaid apps appears to verify the frequent perception that customers really pay free of charge on-line companies with their information.

Incogni’s researchers took a deep dive into the brand new Google Play information security part, launched in July 2022, to shed extra gentle on the information sharing and safety practices of app builders. They discovered that procuring, enterprise, and food and drinks apps share probably the most information, on common, whereas social media and enterprise apps acquire probably the most information. 

Social media

Among the apps, comparable to Fb, Messenger and Instagram, which acquire probably the most private data, declare sharing the least. Nonetheless, Google’s definition of sharing doesn’t embody the switch of knowledge to a service supplier, for authorized causes, or of anonymized information (which might be re-identified 99.98% of the time with sufficient information factors). This implies much more information may find yourself in transit than customers are made conscious of.

The examine additionally checked out how builders deal with the transit of consumer information. They discovered that 4.9% of apps don’t encrypt private information in transit, via their very own admission. Extra apparently, lower than half of the apps make any claims about encrypting information in transit, which may imply that the true share of apps that present no encryption is way increased. 

Summed up, the outcomes of Incogni’s report present robust proof that way more information is “shared” than Google Play customers might perceive from the information security part. 

Methodology

Incogni’s examine was based mostly on an evaluation of the information security sections of the highest 500 free and 500 paid apps within the Google Play Retailer. 

Learn the total report by Incogni.