FixableWho's tracking you online
Free apps selling your data
A free game or weather app quietly selling your location and contacts.
Understand it
Many free apps make their money not from you but from the data they collect - location, contacts, the other apps you have installed - sold on through advertising kits bundled inside them. The app works; you are the product.
How to spot it
An app asking for far more than it needs - a torch wanting your location and contacts - is the tell.
Close the gap
- Check what an app asks for before installing; refuse what it does not need.
- Review and cut permissions on apps you already have.
- Delete apps you do not use - they keep collecting in the background.
- Prefer paid or open-source apps for the things that matter.
What to do about it
This is part of your plan at the High-risk level - Harden your devices. Work through it there and you’ll close this off along with everything else it covers.