Meta the most data-hungry company, study finds

Meta has been found to be the “most data-hungry company” according to a study, with apps including Instagram, Threads and Facebook collection up to 86% of a user’s personal data.

The investigation by cryptocurrency researchers, The Money Mongers found most apps (76%) collect and share user data in on form or another, with over a third privy to a users’ browsing history.

The study — which looked at the top 100 most-downloaded apps on Apple’s App Store — found Meta’s newest app Threads to be the most invasive, collecting 72% more personal data than X, formerly Twitter.

At the other end of the spectrum, Disney+ and dating app Bumble collect just 18% and 22% of user data respectively.

In terms of third party data sharing, which over half of the apps do, social media apps top the charts at an average of 37.73%.

Over half (66%) of the apps collect location data to be shared with third parties. And 64% collect contact info to be shared with third parties.

Diagnostic, Sensitive info, Financial info, Health, and fitness are the least collected data types. Beyond social media, within the top 10 apps, Uber Eats and Google lead with 48% data harvested.

An Australian-US cyber security company has already revealed the extent of TikTok’s data collection, suggesting the social media company has increased what location information it collects to include altitude, which could tell it what floor of a building a user is on.

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