Annual Trends in App Privacy Compliance

Purpose Distribution Across Privacy Types

Data Not Linked to You

Data Linked to You

Data Used to Track You

The ratios of the six Purposes for the Data Used to Track You, Data Linked to You, and Data Not Linked to You Privacy Types. The denominator is the number of apps in the specific Privacy Type.

Data Category Ratios by Privacy Type

Data Not Linked to You

No data available

Data Linked to You

No data available

The ratios of Data Categories by the reported Purpose for the Data Linked to You (left) and Data Not Linked to You (right) Privacy Types.

Overlap of Apps by Privacy Type

Data Not Linked to You: 4Data Not Linked to YouData Linked to You: 4Data Linked to YouData Used to Track You: 4Data Used to Track YouData Not Linked to You: 358,429358,429Data Linked to You: 306,026306,026Data Used to Track You: 185,171185,171(Data Not Linked to You ∩ Data Linked to You): 181,906181,906(Data Not Linked to You ∩ Data Used to Track You): 140,326140,326(Data Linked to You ∩ Data Used to Track You): 116,337116,337(Data Not Linked to You ∩ Data Linked to You ∩ Data Used to Track You): 72,29372,293Data Not Collected: 1Data Not CollectedData Not Collected: 274,703274,703

A Venn diagram of the number of apps in each of the four Privacy Types. Data Not Collected is mutually exclusive to the other three Privacy Types

App Costs vs. Privacy Practices

The ratios of app costs for each of the four Privacy Types. Free apps are more likely than paid apps to collect data, including data used to track and linked to users.

Content Ratings vs. Privacy Practices

The ratios of content ratings for each of the four Privacy Types. The denominator is the number of apps with the designated content rating that have a privacy label.

Rating Counts vs. Privacy Practices

The ratios of the rating counts for each of the four Privacy Types. The denominator is the number of apps with the designated rating counts that have a privacy label. Apps with a larger number of user ratings are more likely to collect data, including data used to track users. Ratings counts are not localized metadata and apps with low ratings counts in the US region may have higher counts elsewhere.

App Sizes vs. Privacy Practices

The ratios of app sizes for each of the four Privacy Types. The denominator is the number of apps with the designated app size that have a privacy label. Apps that are larger in size are more likely to collect data, including data used to track and linked to users.

Yearly App Releases with Privacy Labels

The number of apps released during a given year for each of the four Privacy Types. The pink bars show the total number of apps with privacy labels released in that year.

Ratio of Data Categories for Each Privacy Type

Data Not Linked to You

Data Linked to You

Data Used to Track You

The ratios of the 14 Data Categories for each of three Privacy Types. The denominator is the number of apps in the specific Privacy Type.

Ratio of Data Types for Each Privacy Type

Data Not Linked to You

Data Linked to You

Data Used to Track You

The ratios of the 32 Data Types for each of three Privacy Types. The denominator is the number of apps in the specific Privacy Type.

Ratio of App Genre for Each Privacy Type

Data Not Linked to You

Data Linked to You

Data Used to Track You

Data Not Collected

The ratios of top apps in app store genres for each of the four Privacy Types. The denominator is the number of apps with the designated app store genre that have a privacy label. This includes only apps placed in the top in genre categories.