If you have a smartphone and spend any time on the internet, it’s likely that at least some of your personal data has been collected, shared, and sold at some point. Many apps you use every day are highly invasive—but you don’t have to make it easy for companies and data brokers to obtain and use your information.
It probably comes as no surprise that social media apps conduct a significant amount of data collection and sharing, and those from Google and Meta are among the worst culprits. That said, any category of app has the potential to be invasive in the data that’s collected and how that data is used, according to Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
For example, weather apps are notoriously poor when it comes to privacy, and ad-supported games like Candy Crush Saga also collect a decent amount of data that may track you across apps and/or be shared with third-party advertisers. As Android Police points out, Uber Eats also tracks way more than you might expect.
Many apps need some amount of your personal data to function properly—but probably not as much as they are taking by default.
Know what data your apps collect
Before you download an app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, review what data the app collects and how it is used on the app’s listing (under App Privacy with Apple and Data safety with Google).
Meta’s Messenger, for example, clearly states that it collects an enormous amount of data for third-party advertising, developer advertising and marketing, analytics, product personalization, and “other purposes.” Meanwhile, Signal, a much better pick for privacy and security, collects only your phone number for app functionality and does not share any data with third parties.
This also applies to your random, single-purpose apps—flashlights, unit converters, guitar tuners, etc.—when you have a dozen or more options to choose from and no specific recommendation to go off of. Look for those that explicitly say that they do not sell data to third parties. In some cases, paying a few dollars for an app that isn’t ad supported (rather than defaulting to whatever is free) will net you some additional privacy protection.
You can also review TOS about, which has summaries of terms of service and privacy policies for many companies and services with ratings and specific elements considered good, bad, and ugly.
What do you think so far?
Finally, do a little bit of research to see if the app you’re considering has been reviewed and recommended by privacy experts or has known alternatives that are more privacy-centric.
How to protect your privacy with apps
If you are going to use apps that collect a lot of data, you should try to minimize their access as much as possible, removing permissions that aren’t essential for apps to function. Location sharing is a good place to start: you can turn off precise location sharing on both iOS and Android or disable location services entirely for specific apps. Even your weather app doesn’t actually need access to your location—you can type in a zip code instead.
We’ve got a guide to running a privacy audit on your iPhone, which includes disallowing apps from tracking you. On Android, you can delete your advertising ID. This will make it harder for third parties to track your activity.
Klosowski also advises auditing the apps on your device and removing anything that isn’t currently needed—for example, apps downloaded for one-time use (like a conference) or those built into your OS, such as a compass or measurement tool. These apps may be ad-supported or otherwise collecting data in the background for no reason.
If you want to be especially vigilant when it comes to your privacy, you can also consider alternatives to data-hungry apps, such as swapping in DuckDuckGo for Google Chrome or utilizing services like Uber Eats on the web instead.
