Certain social media apps that are probably on your iPhone right now are collecting more data than you can imagine. While most social media apps are guilty of this practice and use your data to profit from third-party advertisers and learn more about you to better deliver you content, some are worse than others.
Maybe you’ve been considering doing away with some of your apps, but you’re not sure where to start. If your top concerns are your data and privacy, security experts recommend deleting two data-sharing apps that just happen to be among the most popular apps around.
1. Instagram
Instagram is owned by Meta, the same platform that owns Facebook. It collects a significant amount of data on its users including location data, device and network information (your model, operating systems, etc), your IP address, your search history and how you engage with other Instagram users, your direct messages, comments, and so much more. And, of course, it has all of your basic information as well, like your name, email, phone number, bio, and profile picture.
Instagram may be using your data to enhance your user experience and help inform new features it can develop. It is also certainly using data to serve its users targeted ads. But you can decide for yourself if you want your data to be a product for Instagram.
2. Facebook
Like Instagram, Facebook’s business model is built on collecting a wide variety of its users’ data so that the company can sell it to advertisers and turn a profit. Facebook collects data on how you interact with posts and videos, your interests, political and religious views, websites that you visit while using Facebook-tracking tools, the kind of device you’re using, your IP address, search history, private messages, and more.
The best way to ensure Facebook can’t collect more of your data is by — you guessed it — deleting the app. If that’s not in the cards for you right now, you can adjust your ad preferences and privacy settings to help limit the data that Facebook can access. Facebook allows lets you download a copy of the data it has collected so that you’re aware of what it knows about you.
