The apps require access to 14 separata data permissions, such as personal location, media files, browser history, and more.

The Meta policy is the same on all three of their apps.

TRG Datacenters says personal online data is increasingly less secure. Citing data from Statista, there were 6.1 million data breaches in 2022 with over 700 million private files from individuals and businesses leaking online.

Apps installed on smartphones syphon personal data to function. Research has shown that the average smartphone user has over 80 apps installed on their device at any given moment.

Upon downloading these apps, users allow access to their personal data through “permissions,” which can range from basic information—such as an email or a phone number—right the way through to taking financial information.

Which app is most invasive?
To find out which popular smartphone app is the most invasive with personal data, TRG Datacenters analysed both the iOS and Google Play app stores, finding the top 100 apps by downloads and establishing which required the most permissions to function.

Second to Meta’s family of apps are LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instacart all request 12 data points from users.

These apps do not request health and fitness data from users, and professional social media service LinkedIn also does not request access to browsing history.

Of the top 20 iOS apps by quantity of permissions, 45% (or 9/20) want access to 11 data permissions, with apps such as Google and Amazon Shopping being significantly less invasive than that of the Meta family.

TikTok, the most popular app by downloads on the iOS store, also requests only 11 permissions, 3 fewer than that of rival social media sites Facebook and Instagram.

On average, the number of permissions required for the top 20 iOS apps is just over 11 (11.35 specifically).

Similarly to iOS, the Meta apps of Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger once again feature as the apps in the top 100 that require the most permissions to fully function.

The less data-heavy version of Facebook, called Facebook Lite, still needs the same level of data access as the standard version.

The search giant Google has 13 permissions requested on the Google Play Store, two more than the iOS app version. Likewise, X (previously known as Twitter) needs just seven permissions on iOS, and yet on the Google Play platform it needs 11.

On average, the number of permissions required for the top 20 Google Play Store apps is almost 12 (11.70), showing that apps registered on the Google Play store have a higher average data access requirement than that of iOS.

“The level of data we allow smartphone apps to access about our daily lives is remarkable. With roughly 85% of the world’s population owning an internet-enabled smartphone, and each device containing an average of 80 apps, the quantity of data available to marketers and hackers alike is huge,” said TRG Datacenters chief technical officer Chris Hinkle.

“We fully recommend restricting just how many permissions each app uses. While apps may function better with certain features enabled, your data security must take priority.”