https://m.independent.ie/business/technology/some-popular-smartphone-apps-send-users-data-to-facebook-even-if-they-dont-have-account-37667960.html
Some popular smartphone apps send users data to Facebook - even if they don't
have account
Some popular smartphone apps are sending usersâ data to Facebook, even when
app users donât have a Facebook account.
Gavin McLoughlin
December 30 2018 8:37 PM
1
Spotify (stock image)
Apps on Android smartphones, including music streaming service Spotify and
travel site TripAdvisor, were among apps found to be sending data by
researchers at campaign group Privacy International.
The researchers found many of the apps tested were automatically sending data
to Facebook as soon as the apps were opened.
For the majority of the apps tested, Facebook was notified when a person began
using the app.
Also conveyed was information about the type of smartphone being used, and the
userâs suspected location based on time zone and language data.
In addition, they found that in some cases (not involving Spotify or
TripAdvisor) a person's unique Google advertising identifier was being included
in the data sent.
That could allow Facebook to build up a detailed picture of the person in
question, depending on the number of times it was sent the Google identifier by
different apps. For example, if the unique identifier was sent by a job
searching app and by a Muslim prayer app, the person might be identifiable as a
Muslim job seeker.
"Without any further transparency from Facebook, it is impossible to know for
certain, how the data that we have described in this report is being used," the
Privacy International campaigners said.
The report included responses from a number of the companies whose apps were
tested. The tested apps were for Android phones only, not iPhones.
Spotify said it was "committed to transparency and fairness" and evaluating the
report's findings.
TripAdvisor said it was committed to engaging with Privacy International and
that "respecting the data protection rights of our users is of utmost
importance".
Google said it had controls in place to allow people to change their
advertising identifier.
Facebook said: "it's important for people to have access when we receive
information about them when they're not using our services, and to have control
over whether we associate this information with them.
"Recognizing the value of improvements in this area, we're currently working on
a suite of changes."
Online Editors
Sent from my iPhone
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