Google’s Data Mining on the iPhone Is Staggering, App Privacy Labels Reveal

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Starting with iOS 14, Apple requires developers to reveal all of the personal data an app can collect. These App Privacy labels may be shocking to users who will be made aware that their iPhone is being used to mine data for advertising and other purposes. Not surprisingly, Google is a principal offender.

When Apple unveiled its new App Privacy labels, Facebook took a swipe at Apple, accusing the company of squashing small companies and putting the free internet at risk. The social network even took full-page advertisements in print newspapers to attack Apple.

After Facebook released its updated Messenger app, Apple’s privacy labels revealed the reasons behind Facebook’s brutal attack.

The company’s Messenger app siphons off a ton of personal data, including search history, browsing history, usage data, and more.

It has four-times more privacy labels than WhatsApp and 30 times more than iMessage.

Now it is Google’s turn to come under the spotlight. After a short hiatus, the company finally updated its YouTube and Gmail applications.

Just like Facebook, the amount of information being collected by Google is staggering as noted by BGR. The tech giant mines personal data for third-party advertising, app functionality, analytics, and more.

The most troubling category is the “Other Data,” a catch-all for usages that Google is not ready to disclose.

YouTube gathers more personal information than Gmail, which isn’t surprising. Most of the revenue that YouTube generates comes from advertisements. The company then uses your data for targeted advertising.

Google isn’t providing your data directly to advertisers. Instead, it is organizing your data into categories and allowing advertisers to target specific categories.

Apple isn’t banning Google or even Facebook for mining your data. These new privacy labels are designed to inform you of how your data is being used. You then can decide for yourself if you want to use Google or Facebook, knowing what type of data you are allowing them to access.

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