Android app developers may be unwittingly sharing their users’ location data with advertisers
New findings by the Electronic Frontier Foundation aim to warn app developers that some of the third-party code they place in their apps may also collect their users' location data when they grant permission to the app.
Android app developers may unknowingly expose their users' location information to advertisers and data brokers, according to new research by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The organization warns that developers may not realize their apps are inadvertently sharing users' precise location data with third parties when they grant permission to the app.
This occurs due to default settings within third-party code, known as software development kits (SDKs). While advertising SDKs enable developers to monetize their apps, the trade-off is that users' location histories are shared with data brokers, who then monetize and sell that information to various entities, including militaries, governments, and intelligence agencies.
The EFF found that two popular Android apps, together downloaded over 60 million times, were quietly sharing users' location data. The organization urges developers to disable unnecessary data collection and disable default settings that allow third-party SDKs to inherit the app's permissions and collect users' location data.
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