Research: 12% mobile apps have no privacy policy
November 8, 2022
Pixalate, the fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, has released the Q3 2022 Missing Privacy Policy Report: Mobile Apps for apps available for download across the Apple App Store and Google Play Stores.
Pixalate examined 5.2 million+ downloadable apps across the Apple and Google mobile app stores and found that 12 per cent – over 608,000 – have no detected privacy policy, in violation of both the Apple and Google Play stores’ app privacy guidelines as well as laws that mandate publishing a privacy policy, including CalOPPA, GDPR, CCPA, and COPPA.
Although this number is down compared to Q2 2022 (when there were 688,000+ apps with no detected privacy policy), hundreds of thousands of apps appear to remain in direct policy violation, leaving millions of users vulnerable to privacy exploits and exposing advertisers to compliance violations.
Key Findings:
- 608k+ undetected privacy policy apps – 12 per cent of all apps – across Google (484k+), Apple app stores (123k+) in Q3 2022
- 98 per cent+ of Apple App Store apps with no detected privacy policy are abandoned (2+ years since last update) vs. 52 per cent on Google in Q3 2022
- ~80 per cent of apps with no detected privacy policy privacy and programmatic ads share user location data with advertisers and/or data brokers
- 45k+ apps with no detected privacy policy are likely child-directed, according to Pixalate