Study reveals the scary amount of personal data apps can collect without your permission

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  • A new study has shown that apps tracking user location data can also infer additional personal information, including personality traits, habits, demographics, and interests.
  • The collected information can be used to deliver targeted ads based on data related to the places a user visits.
  • Researchers created an app to track volunteers' location and use it to infer other information about them, including health, ethnicity, religion, and political opinions.

Apps running on iPhone and specific variants of Android will ask your permission before using location data when you first run them. There’s an option to allow the app to use your location only once rather than granting permanent access. But things weren’t always like that, especially on Android. Google ran into its own location tracking-related problems a few years ago when it was discovered that even people who turned off location history were still tracked. It's not just navigation apps like Google Maps that request access to user location on mobile devices.

A new study reveals the scary amount of additional data that can be inferred solely from location information, suggesting new ways to handle location data accessible to apps that might reduce the impact on one’s privacy.

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Study reveals the scary amount of personal data apps can collect without your permission originally appeared on BGR.com on Sun, 21 Feb 2021 at 15:49:40 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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