According to Google data, there are currently more than 3,48 million apps available on the Play Store. This is a considerably high value, but a worrying one if we take into account that the vast majority of these applications collect and share their users' personal data with third parties.
According to a study carried out by the company Incogni, it is estimated that 55.2% of the applications available on the Play Store are providing user information to third-party systems.
Unsurprisingly, entities with the Facebook, Instagram e Snapchat are among the ones that collect the most data, and share it with third parties – which is already part of the very way these platforms work. However, the vast majority of free applications on the platform carry out similar activities, mainly for advertising purposes.
The study also indicates that the most popular applications on the platform also tend to be the ones that collect the most data from users. Apps with more than 500 downloads tend to collect 6,15 times more user data than smaller apps.
Online shopping applications also lead the list of those that collect the most data, especially for recommendation purposes, and also for sharing data with third parties – which can be used for targeted advertising, among others.
It is important to underline that the collection of information may not only be associated with the apps' operating logs and the collection of errors, something that may be considered legitimate use. It also includes the collection of information such as email accounts, telephone numbers and location – basically, data considered sensitive.
The study also indicates that, despite Google's attempts to make its platform more transparent to users, there is still some work to be done. For analysts, there is still a lot of information that is not clear regarding the collection of user data by apps on the platform – to the point that there are even categories of collected data that do not even need to be revealed in the Play Store, which opens doors for an abusive collection of information that is unclear to the vast majority of users.
