Cupertino-based giant Apple recently rolled out its data and privacy information labels that show users the data certain apps take from users. Apple?s move to show privacy labels on app listings on the App Store was criticised by Facebook publicly, where the social media giant took out newspaper ads, accusing Apple of implementing anti-competitive policies. Now, those very App Store privacy labels show that WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger collect a huge amount of user information and data as compared to similar messaging apps like Signal and Telegram. According to the privacy labels on the App Store, both Facebook-owned messaging platforms collect usage data and location details, among other information.
The information available on the App Store shows that the Facebook Messenger collects the most amount of user information, followed by WhatsApp. Both the apps collect a user?s purchase history, financial information, location details, contacts, phone number, email, and usage data, among other things. This also comes at a time WhatsApp implemented a new privacy policy which users are expressing concerns about. This information comes courtesy of folks at 9to5Mac, who shared an image that provides a clear breakup of what all data WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger collect, in comparison to other such apps like Telegram, iMessage, and Signal.
Those using an iPhone can see these detail by going to the respective apps? listings on the Apple App Store. Following is a complete list of all the information WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger collect:
Device ID; User ID; Advertising Data; Purchase History; Coarse Location; Phone Number; Email Address; Contacts; Product Interaction; Crash Data; Performance Data; Other Diagnostic Data; Payment Info; Customer Support; Product Interaction; Other User Content.
Facebook Messenger
Purchase History; Other Financial Info; Precise Location; Coarse Location; Physical Address; Email Address; Name; Phone Number; Other User Contact Info; Contacts; Photos or Videos; Gameplay Content; Other User Content; Search History; Browsing History; User ID; Device ID; Product Interaction; Advertising Data; Other Usage Data; Crash Data; Performance Data; Other Diagnostic Data; Other Data Types; Browsing History; Health; Fitness; Payment Info;
Photos or Videos; Audio Data; Gameplay Content; Customer Support; Other User Content; Search History; Sensitive Info; iMessage; Email address; Phone number; Search history; Device ID.
It is important note that the privacy labels on the App Store are based on the submission made by developers themselves to Apple. These submissions are not manually checked by Apple for now, but companies also provide these details in their lengthy privacy policies as well that aren?t read by a large number of their users.
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