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# Meta and Google's Mobile Apps Demand Three Times More User Data
- URL: https://adjacent.media/signals/meta-and-googles-mobile-apps-demand-three-times-more-user-data/
- Published: 2026-08-19T16:10:40.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-19T16:10:40.000Z
- Description: A new study quantifies what privacy advocates have long suspected: Meta’s apps consume roughly triple the data of Apple or Microsoft equivalents, with Google dominating the volume rankings across its app portfolio.
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #signal, theme-consumer, privacy, data collection, platform behavior

Source: [The Register: Biting the hand that feeds](https://www.theregister.com/personal-tech/2026/08/18/meta-and-google-mobile-apps-gorge-on-user-data-study/5289171?ref=adjacent.media)

A new study quantifies what privacy advocates have long suspected: Meta's apps consume roughly triple the data of Apple or Microsoft equivalents, with Google dominating the volume rankings across its app portfolio. Data extraction funds the advertising models that power both companies' revenue—Meta generates 98% of profits from ads, Google 80%—making aggressive data collection not incidental but central to how they operate. As regulators tighten consent rules and consumers grow wary of tracking, the gap between data-hungry ad platforms and their privacy-conscious competitors is becoming a legible competitive axis shaping app choice.