Apple is confirmed to allow app developers to share user data with ad networks and marketing companies

Protecting users’ private information has always been an indispensable part of Apple’s various promotions. In particular, Apple often uses privacy-protected content to smash Google’s Android system. Apple always feels that it is doing very well and Android has no privacy protection. Of course, there is no doubt that the content and practice of advertising is definitely different, even Apple’s advertising and practical practices are the same.

The Washington Post and the privacy protection company DisConnect are tracking the various applications of the Apple system and the situation is naturally not optimistic. For example, when users sleep, Microsoft OneDrive, Nike, Spotify, Yelp and other well-known applications quietly transmit various types of data in the background. Statistics show that there are more than 5,400 ad trackers found in just 7 days, and within 30 days these apps will upload more than 1.5GB of tracking data. The data is sent to both the ad network and the marketing company as well as to the software developer, but the user obviously does not know that what’s happening on their Apple devices.

What’s interesting is why these apps like to contact the ad network in the middle of the night? It is estimated that users do not find any abnormalities in the middle of the night when they sleep. These late-night encounters happen on the iPhone if you have allowed “background app refresh,” which is Apple’s default.
The data collected by various applications in specific data is also varied. The most basic data is the device model, serial number, and advertising identifier. Most applications may choose to use Facebook or Google’s advertising components, so this data is constantly being transmitted to Facebook and the Google advertising system. Of course, not all data collection takes place in the middle of the night, and some applications upload and even read and collect motion sensor data during the day.

The Washington Post’s survey also tested some of the well-known applications on the Android platform, and the test results were not much different from those on Apple. These applications will quietly collect all kinds of data on any platform. The main purpose of this data is to track users and then conduct advertising marketing. In research, DisConnect said that Google had already removed them, giving reasons that might interfere with the normal loading of ads by other applications. Obviously, Google doesn’t want external agencies to investigate app ads. Most apps with ads on the Android platform use Google ads components.

Source: Washington Post