Mobile Ad Software Encourages Location Data Sharing, EFF Report Finds
An Electronic Frontier Foundation report found that some advertising software development kits bundled into mobile apps are automatically routing users' location data to location data brokers. The investigation traced how these SDKs create a direct pipeline between everyday apps and the broader location data industry.
Why this matters: Most people have no idea that the app they downloaded to track their runs or check the weather is quietly feeding their location to data brokers. The developer may not have intended that either. These ad SDKs are essentially a hidden third party inside the app, and neither the user nor sometimes the developer controls what they collect. That is the part worth paying attention to. The data broker industry runs on this kind of quiet infrastructure. If developers keep reaching for these SDKs without reading the fine print, users pay the price.
Who should care: General readers · Privacy officers · Policy
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