Meta's Apps Devour Triple the Data of Tech Giants Like Apple and Microsoft

A new study from Surfshark reveals that Meta's apps collect an average of 25 out of 35 data types, more than three times as much as Microsoft and Apple gather on average.

The researchers examined 171 apps in the Apple App Store and counted how many of the 35 data categories each developer self-reports collecting. Meta came out on top by a distance, with its apps collecting an average of 25 data types.

The seven most data-hungry apps all belong to Meta, led by Meta AI on 33 data types, followed by Meta Horizon, Meta Business Suite, Meta Ads Manager, Messenger, Forum, and Facebook on 32 each. This echoes an earlier finding that Meta's Messenger collects 32 of a possible 35 data types.

Google accounted for 29 of the 40 apps declaring the broadest data collection, though it was also overrepresented in the sample with 44 apps. Microsoft and Apple were consistently the tamest, with Safari the only Apple app in the study to log browsing history.