Facebook isn't the only one sharing your data

google playstore

In the past couple of months the news and discussions on the user data collection and it's exploitation has put numerous tech companies and social platforms under the inspection of various governments and agencies for the data collection of the user without the user's permission. Although the companies has introduced and updated their privacy policies regarding the permission of the user data, a new report from the "Financial Times" claims that 90% of the free applications available on Google Play shares the user data with Google's parent company, Alphabet, without the permission and knowledge of the users.

android authority

It does not end only here as 43% of applications share your data with Facebook and a significant amount of applications shares your data with the social platforms and websites like Twitter, Verizon, Microsoft and Amazon without your knowledge. The data collected can generate the device the user uses, the date of birth, location, gender, etc. The data is used to ensure that the right advertisements are shown to the right audience, in the end generating more purchases which results in generating more revenue for the company, according to the report. The report says that most of the data is shared by the applications aimed for the younger generation.

google playstore

The Google talking to the BBC defends that the report is incorrect. According to the Google the report misjudged the ordinary functional services like crash reporting and analytics, and how applications share data to deliver those services. "Across Google and in Google Play we have clear policies and guidelines for how developers and third-party apps can handle data and we require developers to be transparent and ask for user permission." the Google told BBC. "If an app violates our policies, we take action."

The whole report has definitely raised some questions on the matter of user data collection. Well both the giants Facebook and Alphabet, hasn't been reported to have done anything unethical with this data, but the whole user data matter is still not fully transparent, especially on how the user data is used.

The data sharing policies are yet to be defined and implemented properly. Until then, the users should be more careful on what applications they use as it can cost them their privacy.