How “Free” Apps Sell Your Data
Since the day Steve Jobs predicted the creation of a new system that would distribute software applications, the app industry has grown to be massive. in the beginning, if you wanted to download an app, you had to pay it with money, today, you pay it with data.
Why do app developers care about your data?
Normally, they really don’t, but they know somebody who does.
Your database is sold to companies who process the information, and afterwards sell it to advertisers, retail outlets and hedge funds. The most common one being advertisers. Location-targeted advertising is a big business. According to an article published on the New York Times official website, an estimate of twenty billion dollars was spent on it during 2018. The app developers have two strategies, they either directly sell their data, or share it for location-based ads, which may indirectly influence the user to buy a premium account. According to research done by The Times, Location data companies pay about half a cent to two cents per user, per month.
“We look to understand who a person is, based on where they’ve been and where they’re going, in order to influence what they’re going to do next,” said Ms. Greenstein, an executive at GroundTruth.
