55% of Play Store apps admit to sharing user data – report

Earlier this year, Google replaced Play Store’s app permissions list with its new Data Safety Section, which now requires developers to disclose how they collect, share and protect user’s data. Examining the information provided by 500 paid and 500 free Android apps for the section, Incogni found that 55.2% of them admitted to sharing user data with third-parties.

Social apps collect user data the most

According to the report, Social, Business and Shopping apps collect user data the most. Social media giant Meta’s apps including Facebook, Facebook Lite, Messenger, Messenger Lite and Instagram are among the top 10 apps collecting the most information. The list also includes Oculus, LinkedIn, eBay, Snapchat, and DoorDash – Dasher.

Free apps share more data than paid apps

Shopping, Business, and Food & Drink apps topped the list when it comes to data sharing with third parties.

Per report, free apps share an average of 7 times more data points than paid apps. In addition, apps with over 500.000 thousand downloads were found to share user information 6.15 times more than those with less downloads.

Cast for Chromecast & TV Cast, DoorDash – Dasher and The Home Depot are the top 3 apps sharing user data the most, followed by DoorDash – Delivery, Fetch Rewards, Drum Pad Machine, Raid: Shadow Legends, PicsArt, Poshmark, and Reddit respectively.

Some apps even share sensitive information

App interactions, crash logs and diagnostics were the top three data types shared by the apps examined for the study. Some of them even share sensitive information such as location (13.4%), email address (6.7%), photos (3.23%), phone numbers (3.23%), user payment info (2.62%), and even sexual orientation (0.62%).

Here are the most shared data points across all the Android apps included in the report.