Almost 9 in 10 Android Apps Are Able To Share Data With Google, Says Study (ft.com) 33
A peer-reviewed study [PDF] of almost one million Android apps has revealed how data from smartphones are harvested and shared, with nearly 90 percent of apps set up to transfer information back to Google. From a report: Researchers at Oxford university analysed approximately a third of the apps available in Google's Play Store in 2017 and found that the median app could transfer data to 10 third parties, with one in five apps able to share data with more than 20. This year has seen unprecedented scrutiny over how websites use the data they collect from their users, but little attention has so far been paid to the sprawling and fast-growing world of smartphone apps. Reuben Binns, the computer scientist who led the project, said that because most apps have now moved to a "freemium" model, where they make revenues from advertising rather than sales, data sharing has spiralled out of control.
Users, regulators and sometimes even the app developers and advertisers are unaware of the extent to which data flow from smartphones to digital advertising groups, data brokers and intermediaries that buy, sell and blend information, he said. "This industry was growing already on the webâ...âwhen smartphones came along, that was a new opportunity," he said. "It feels like this legitimate business model has gone completely out of control and created a kind of chaotic industry that is not understood by the people who are most affected by it."
Users, regulators and sometimes even the app developers and advertisers are unaware of the extent to which data flow from smartphones to digital advertising groups, data brokers and intermediaries that buy, sell and blend information, he said. "This industry was growing already on the webâ...âwhen smartphones came along, that was a new opportunity," he said. "It feels like this legitimate business model has gone completely out of control and created a kind of chaotic industry that is not understood by the people who are most affected by it."
Peak App (Score:3)
No shit. (Score:5, Funny)
90% of Android apps use Google's free usage monitoring service and/or ad framework?
You don't say.
Re: (Score:3)
Do you know what kind of data they're talking about?
The study used static analysis to search for hostnames in APK files. They matched the host names to those of known tracking companies.
The string "google.com" was found in 87.52% of apps. Of those, Google API's were 67.51 and Google's ad services (DoubleClick) were down at 60.85%.
Facebook was at 42.54%
That's the extent of it. They did no analysis of data and couldn't differentiate between advertising and analytics.
Another issue is
that without dynamic network traffic analysis of all apps, including
successful man-in-the-middle proxying and ability to interpret the
data payloads, we cannot confirm precisely what data is sent to each
tracker. Finally, different trackers serve different purposes; some
facilitate targeted advertising, while others are used for analytics.
Without further fine-grained distinctions between such purposes,
the figures presented here do not represent the full nuance and
variety of third party tracking and its impacts.
Google business model (Score:5, Funny)
The ONLY reason I own an Iphone. (Score:1)
I'll take Apple over Google. Thankfully Apple has sided with an individual's right to privacy. It's the only reason I own iphone.
Re: The ONLY reason I own an Iphone. (Score:1)
That and the decided lack of malware. The Play store is riddled with it. Never happens in the App store. Simply does not happen.
Re: (Score:2)
I'll agree it happens far less frequently but it does happen: https://us.norton.com/internet... [norton.com]
10 of 10 apps (Score:1)
are out to get you.
Its not paranoia if you right.
Peer reviewed? (Score:2)
Since when did papers on Arxiv get a claim of peer review? I mean, ok, I guess I read it. So sure.
the need ? (Score:1)
To be fair, a big 80% of them don't even need them. There should be some regulation on what data I need to share cause right now it feels like an open bar and everyone is taking advantage of this obviously.
Open letter to all my friends (Score:1)
Particularly the Android fanbois and Apple hatorz.
I keep thinking maybe I'll try an Android for my next phone
And then I read this kind of stuff.
No thanks. I'll keep my iPhone.
Re: (Score:2)
Haha, my thoughts exactly.
almost 9 out of 10 (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Actually there are numbers between 8 and 9, believe it or not.