Smartphone Apps Are Filled with Trackers You Know Nothing About

All of this should make you skeptical of marketing like Apple’s recent “privacy matters” campaign.On mobile, tracking is generally performed through the use of a “software development kit” or SDK—a set of tools that helps app developers get something done faster. After digging into all of Damiano’s apps, Reply All made a discovery: He had downloaded a game called Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which reported the phone’s location and IMEI (a unique identifier) to a bunch of analytics companies, which then sold that data, eventually leading to robocallers purchasing it. The world of SDKs is intentionally obfuscated from view in the same way a magician wishes their most impressive tricks to remain secret.The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about data collection on millions of other apps, such as those intended for menstrual cycle and body weight tracking.

Source: onezero.medium.com