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What Do Apps Know About Us?

Worried about how much information your smartphone is gathering about you? We're sharing the lowdown on what our apps know about us!

We all enjoy using apps – most of us use them every day, but do you know how much information the top apps are gathering about you?

Key things to remember…

The reasons that apps gather your data are as follows:

To connect you to the right people
To develop their services to make them better for every user
So they can send relevant advertising and information to you directly
To keep things secure. For instance, they are able to verify that it’s really you that’s using your device
To deliver a more tailored experience, making sure you see things that are relevant to you and your lifestyle

Here's a quick breakdown of what each app is gathering

Your email address, phone number and date of birth
Information you disclose in your snaps and chats with your friends
Information on the devices you use, like the model of your phone or tablet
Your photos and camera
You can also choose to give Snapchat your location – and this can let others know where you are too

Your email address, phone number and any other personal information you provide when you sign up
Any information you share in your photos
If you’ve chosen the ‘Find Friends’ feature, Instagram has access to your contacts list
Information about what websites you’re visiting

Your email address, phone number and date of birth
Any information you share in your posts, chats with friends or photos you upload
Your location
Information about the people you are in contact with the most
If you use Facebook to make purchases in a game or make a donation, Facebook has your credit card details stored
Information on the devices you use, like the model of your phone or tablet, how much battery you have, and your IP address
Facebook Messenger and any 3rd party apps you sign into via Facebook will gather this info too

Your name, email addresses, date of birth, gender, telephone number, and country you live in
Things you search for
Websites you visit
Videos you watch
Ads that you click or tap
Information about the device you’re using, like the make and model of your phone or tablet
IP address
Calendars, contacts, emails and documents if you use Google apps like Gmail

70% of the apps we download are deleted in less than 72 hours
Apple’s App Store now was over 2 million apps to choose from
The average iOS device has around 80 apps installed during its lifetime
The total number of mobile apps predicted to be downloaded in 2017 is 187 billion
The most popular app of all time is Facebook