The most data hungry apps are dominated by social media platforms. Facebook and Instagram top the list in joint first place, each with 156 data points linked to users. This is followed closely by Threads, with 154 (with all three being owned by Meta), highlighting how important data collection is to these types of platforms in order to customise content to show things such as posts and friend suggestions that are most relevant to the user and which build detailed social profiles.
Surprisingly, Amazon Alexa is the only AI assistant that features in the top 10. Although it makes sense that Alexa ranks highly due to its integration in users’ homes and routines, it could be that other AI assistants such as Google Assistant have different privacy policies when it comes to data collection. For example, it may be that these apps collect data used to track you, while deliberately avoiding any data linked to you. This could be for several reasons such as prioritising privacy or avoiding potential misuse of user information.
Most collected data linked to the user
The most frequently collected data linked to users spans a wide range of categories, highlighting how apps gather detailed information to personalise experiences and optimise functionality. Contact information including names, phone numbers, and home addresses is the most collected data linked to the user – collected 667 times across apps. Close behind are identifiers like screen names, account IDs, and customer numbers, collected 546 times, and usage data such as taps, clicks, and scrolling behaviour, recorded 469 times.
| Most collected data linked to user | Examples | Total # of times data type collected |
| Contact info | Name, phone number | 667 |
| Identifiers | Screen name, account ID | 546 |
| Usage data | Taps, clicks | 469 |
| User content | User’s photos, videos, | 376 |
| Diagnostics | Crash logs, launch times | 302 |
| Location | Information that describes the location of a user or device | 269 |
| Search history | Information about searches performed in the app | 159 |
| Purchases | An account’s or individual’s purchases or purchase tendencies | 179 |
| Financial info | Payment card number, credit score | 137 |
| Other data | Any other data types not mentioned | 84 |
| Browsing history | Content the user has viewed that is not part of the app, such as websites | 70 |
| Contacts | Such as a list of contacts in the user’s phone or address book | 68 |
| Health & fitness | Health and medical data | 50 |
| Sensitive info | Ethnic data, sexual orientation | 31 |
| Body | The user’s hand structure and hand movements | 3 |
The sheer scale of data collected highlights why understanding and managing app permissions and data policies is increasingly important for users. With hundreds of different types of personal information collected on a daily basis, ranging from basic contact details to extremely sensitive health data, users need to be aware of how to actively manage app permissions and data policies.
https://www.apteco.com/insights/blog/apps-ai-and-data-privacy-2025-whos-collecting-most-your-data
