Indian Android Apps Collect More Data Than Other Global Peers

Harin - Dec 06, 2018

Several top Indian Android apps in different categories ask for permissions 45% higher than other global apps.

Compared to other global apps, several top Indian Android apps in different categories asks for as much as 45% higher users’ permissions. Among these apps, those that need to be mentioned are SMSes, contact book and microphone.

An annual study from Arrka, a data privacy platform, and cybersecurity enterprise suggested that approximately one-third of the permissions access wasn’t needed for those app’s core functionality. Among third parties that receive these shared data, Facebook and Google are the two firms that receive the most data.

The statistics were collected on 100 Indian apps. Each of these app needs to have a million downloads at the minimum across Apple’s App Store, Google Play and other websites. An assessment on technical and privacy parameters was carried out on about 50 global Android apps. Apps belong to categories like shopping, travel, homegrown apps, and wallets take 1.5 to 3 times more permissions than other global apps.

As the number of smartphones is increasing and data cost is becoming more affordable, internet companies are receiving many new users. Asking for access permission helps company collect more data on shopping patterns, usage behaviors, use of different services and bank transactions.

These data will then be used by third parties for targeted selling. On average, when a user installs a particular app, Indian apps take about 8 permissions. Seeking for more permission allows these apps to collect more user’s data, which will be considered as a privacy invasion. This is especially true when the user has unknowingly granted permission.

Giant tech firms like Facebook has been put under the radar for customer data misuse. Recently, Google informed that new controls allowing users sharing data rights when they install third-party apps will be added in.

The study has raised concern over the lack of discipline while collecting user’s data as well as a privacy invasion. About 99% of these apps send data to third parties for advertising or analyzing purposes. Google ranks first on the list of third-parties receive the most data, while Facebook is in the second spot.