A study of five major tech companies determines that Google is the most intrusive with user privacy.
That big tech companies are dedicated to tracking and collecting user data is nothing new at this point. We are all aware that our browsing habits, the use of applications and the time we spend there are used for purposes that are not always completely transparent.
What brings novelties are the surveys that are carried out to find out who collects the most data. As published in Apple Insider, of the five major tech companies surveyed, Google is the one that collects the most data from users, with Apple being the least.
A first place that should surprise no one
Google is the technology that collects the most data
According to the study, conducted by the firm StockApps with the support of the marketing company Digitalinformationworld, the collection of data carried out by Google, Twitter, Amazon, Facebook and Apple was the subject of an investigation. Of all of them, the Mountain View company leads with 39 data points collected per user. The study doesn’t describe what these “data points” are, but it does say they include a user’s location data, browsing history, activity on third-party websites, and, in case of Google, Gmail emails.
Additionally, according to the source, they point out that Google’s business model relies heavily on advertising, which results in even more data collection. Without going any further, there is an application for GNU/Linux systems that notifies the user each time Google collects their data, and the notifications are very abundant. Remember that you can download all the data Big G has on you so you know exactly what is being collected.
Google is followed in second place by Twitter with 24 points and Amazon with 23, also because they are supported either by advertising revenue or by trying to suggest something to the user before they consider searching for it. .
So is Apple the company that cares most about privacy?
Since iOS 14.5, Apple includes an app tracking lock
None of the companies studied are privacy-conscious charities, but according to research by StockApps, Apple only stores the information needed to manage user accounts. This is because their website does not need to rely on ad revenue like the rest of the companies reviewed.
Also, it should be remembered that those in Cupertino have already introduced a feature called App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14.5, which basically allows users with an iPhone to prevent the apps they use from collecting their data or monitoring their behaviour.
On Android, we have a similar solution built into the DuckDuckGo app. This function is called App Tracking Protection, and it is dedicated to blocking all the trackers detected in all the applications that we have installed on our phones. You can download the application in the button that you will find just below.
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser | google play