If you’re trying to keep apps out of your data — or, at the very least — prevent them from selling your data to third party sources, you’re in for a wild ride. More than 50 percent of apps have been found to engage in some sort of data sharing with third parties in an effort to turn a profit. You may not even be aware they’re doing it in some cases — or you may have given them permission without realizing it.
When you find out an app is selling your data, it can feel like an invasion of privacy and personal space. But it’s far more common than many of us realize. Here’s the deal: you can take more control over the apps that you allow to do this by deleting a few of the worst offenders.
Start with these five apps that have been known to share your personal information with a third party.
You may want to sit for this one. Instagram has been found to share 79 percent of the data that it collects about you, making it one of the absolute worst offenders. When you think about it though, you are giving IG access to so much information, including your location, the products that you use, your personal spending habits, even where you like to travel and info about your pets and the people in your life. As the saying goes, when an app is free, you become the product — Instagram is no exception.
Yet another Meta app that turns profits using your data, Facebook collects your contact information, location, info about your likes and dislikes, and so on. Is it any wonder that it uses this information to sell to advertisers? This is one app you expect to hear about, as it has been in the news for this practice for years now.
But you’re just trying to expand your professional network and maybe find a job you love, we hear you saying — and we get it. LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for your work life and for networking. But it comes with a cost: your information is sold to third parties. And, again, LinkedIn collects an abundance of information on your, including your contacts, location, and salary.
Uber Eats
Another seemingly innocent app that collects lots of data on you in Uber Eats. Every time you plug in your location, credit card details, and even your food preferences, that data is being collected by this app and other meal delivery apps. And they have been known to sell that information to turn profits.
YouTube
Ah, the YouTube algorithm — working a million miles a minute to gather as much information about your preferences and desires as possible so that it can pump ads to you for products you never knew you needed (but somehow want). YouTube has tons of personal data on you and isn’t shy about giving it to third parties. You may feel the benefits of using YouTube outweighs these negatives, but at least this awareness of how the platform uses your data may keep you from falling for some of its advertising temptations.
