Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Beware: Social Media Apps Are Tracking You!

February 3, 2022

Atlas VPN reported on February 2 that social media apps are tracking us more than most people ever thought.

Trackers allow ad services to follow users around the web to learn about their browsing habits. While first-party trackers are stored by the website or app you are visiting directly, third-party trackers can invade your privacy and serve targeted ads based on your preferences.

The report shows that:

  • YouTube application has 14 trackers in total, 10 first-party and 4 third-party contacts.
  • TikTok app trackers are more concerning as 13 out of 14 are third-party network contacts.
  • Twitter and Telegram each have 9 trackers in their iOS applications.
  • Magazine applications averaged 28 trackers, of which 26 belong to third-party network contacts.
  • iHeart: Radio application made 56 contacts, with 51 being to third-party networks, which is the most among all apps analyzed in the research.

Why are third-party trackers bad? They are placed by a website you haven’t visited. These third parties can embed trackers on websites all over the internet, allowing them to collect massive amounts of data on you and share it with anyone. So much for privacy.

The full article is worth reading.

Frankly, I detest those third party trackers and refuse them wherever I can.

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
3975 University Drive, Suite 225, Fairfax, VA 22030
Email: Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
https://senseient.com
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