Many Android users might be unknowingly sharing their precise location with advertising networks and data brokers due to hidden third-party software within their favorite/trusted apps.
Android Apps Location Leak
A report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reveals that a number of third-party advertising Software Development Kits (SDKs) collect and share user location data by default. When you grant location access to a legitimate service, like a weather or navigation app, that same permission is silently exploited by these hidden advertising SDKs.
The EFF highlighted several SDKs guilty of this default data harvesting. The data collected often ends up with location data brokers and has historically been used for tracking military personnel and other law enforcement activities.
While app developers aren’t to blame, many fail to review and disable these hidden default data-sharing settings before publishing their apps.
“Users can take extra steps to defend their location privacy, but they shouldn’t have to,” stated EFF Staff Technologist Lena Cohen. The EFF is now urging developers and regulators to take immediate action to stop apps from leaking sensitive data to advertisers.
Started his freelancing adventure in 2018 and began doing freelance Audio Engineering work and then started freelance writing a few years later.
Currently he writes for Gadget Pilipinas and Grit.PH.
He is also a musician, foody, gamer, and PC enthusiast.
