Facebook still receives user data from major Android apps like Duolingo, Indeed and others: Report

Social media giant Facebook has been finding itself in one controversy after the other since last year. And now, the social networking platform is in a new data-related controversy again. According to a new report, a number of major Android apps like search service Yelp and language learning app Duolingo send personal data to Facebook without informing their users about it. This is being done for ad-tracking.

However, it is shocking that Facebook continues to engage in this kind of behaviour in spite of facing so much backlash about collecting user data without their consent and more lately, for bribing teenagers in the US and India in exchange for their data.

The report, which came from the London-based watchdog group, Privacy International (PI), added that Yelp and Duolingo are not the only two apps that are engaging in this behaviour.

There are two other Muslim praying apps, a Bible app as well as a popular job-search app called Indeed that are leaking data to Facebook for the purpose of ad-targeting. Furthermore, the social networking platform manages to collect your data even if you are not logged in or don’t have a Facebook account.

The social networking giant uses this data for ad tracking and also for improving its features like friend suggestions. Having access to your contacts, call history, SMS data and location only means that it can give you some meaningful suggestions.

The report has also added that a number of iOS app makers also share sensitive health, fitness and financial data with Facebook. Such practices of the social media giant have time and again outraged users and privacy advocates. A number of users who value privacy have agreed to the fact that Facebook is collecting too much data about their personal lives and online and offline behaviours when it actually does not even need all of it to function effectively.

However, Facebook does not take responsibility for all this. The social media giant just says that the apps are responsible for sending it data and it is their job to ensure that it has been collected in a way that abides laws.