Cybersecurity firm Surfshark has analyzed 100 popular iOS apps and found data privacy practices in financial apps worrying。It found that payments giant PayPal and popular trading app for retail investors, Robinhood, collected the most user data。

Financial applications hoard user data

The study found that financial apps collect more user data than other app categories on average - of the 32 possible data points tracked by Apple's app store, financial apps collect 16; PayPal and Robinhood collect the most data points, 26 and 25, respectively。

"Nearly 20% of the data collected is used for tracking。This tracking data can be shared with third-party advertisers or data brokers, who use it to publish personalized ads for users or to help companies conduct market research, "said Surfshark principal researcher Agneska Sablovskaja.。

PayPal and Robinhood are the most "data hungry" apps。However, they don't seem to use the information they collect - at least they claim not to - to track users.。However, many other popular financial apps also engage in such tracking, including Revolut, Binance, Coinbase, and Crypto..Com。

Tracking involves linking data about a particular user or device, such as a user ID or device ID, collected from an app with external sources such as third-party ad networks。In addition, the collected data may be distributed to data brokers。

50% APP collects search history and location information

Nearly half of apps collect precise location data and search history across all app categories。Of these, Facebook and Instagram had the highest level of "privacy violations," collecting all 32 data points defined by Apple.。

"Two-thirds of apps collect your name and rough location, and nearly half collect your precise location."。Rough positioning is a rough estimate of where you are, while precise positioning is more detailed and accurate, "Surfshark explained.。

In addition, 93% of the data points collected by financial applications are related to user identity。Mint, a popular app for managing personal finances, shares 70% of its collected data with third parties, the highest amount of data ever observed, worrying.。

Sablovskaja concludes: "Understanding an app's privacy policy is essential to protect digital autonomy.。"