Several Apple, Google apps lack privacy data: Report

After analysing more than 5 million active apps on the App Store and Play Store in the first quarter of this year, a new report suggests that 10 per cent of those apps have not detected privacy policies.

According to fraud protection firm Pixalate, Apple requires apps to submit data about their privacy policies, and show them to consumers in a "nutrition label" format. In the wake of that feature, Google also followed suit on the Play Store, reports AppleInsider.

The report mentioned that there are 7,87,000 apps with no stated privacy policies, representing 17 per cent of active apps on Google's app marketplace, and 13 per cent of App Store apps.

However, the report does not include the fact that Apple requires app developers to submit privacy policies with app updates. If an app has not been updated in some time, then it will lack a privacy report.

It is likely that many of the apps on the App Store are abandoned or no longer updated in general.

In some cases, a developer could be intentionally withholding app updates to keep their privacy policies off the record, but that probably isn't the norm.

The report also suggests that 98 per cent of the apps that don't have stated privacy policies also lack terms of service. It also found that about 5,000 apps on the App Store share end-user IP information with advertising bidders.