By this point most people have started to realize that any and all social media platforms that they end up using are going to track them at the very least to some extent. However, it should also be noted that some platforms will track you a lot more than others, with certain social media sites mining so much of your private and personal data that it would be tantamount to a privacy violation if they were ever held accountable.
One way in which social media platforms try to target you with ads is through something called tracking. This is a process by which they essentially follow you while you are browsing the web and taking note of the various things that you are doing. This allows them to figure out what your interests are, thereby enabling them to offer you ads that you’d be more likely to click on. Third party trackers are perhaps the most invasive trackers out there, so it is important to know which sites tend to use them most often.
Many would assume that Facebook would have the highest number of trackers in its app, but it turns out that that’s not the case at all. Rather, the companies that have the most trackers in their apps are actually YouTube and TikTok, both of which have around 14 potential trackers apiece which makes them the apps that you should be wary of if you want to safeguard privacy. Another thing to keep in mind is that while both apps have the same number of potential trackers overall, there is a stark contrast regarding which trackers they use.
10 out of the 14 potential trackers that YouTube’s app has are first party trackers which are relatively normal trackers that are designed to track your usage of the app itself. It only has four of the more privacy invading third party trackers that can track what you do on other sites which is something that most people are probably not going to end up being all that comfortable with for a few really obvious reasons.
If you were to check out TikTok’s trackers, though, they tend to paint a far more concerning picture. That’s because 13 of its 14 trackers are third party trackers, and there is no way to know what information is being shared through them. Using TikTok’s app will almost certainly result in you seeing oddly specific ads, and the main reason for that is that it has such a high number of third party trackers and has far more of them than any other social media app that you would want to use.
Telegram is also a pretty serious offender from this perspective since the instant messaging app has around nine third party trackers on its app. Facebook and Instagram are relatively conservative in this respect since the former only has one third party tracker and no first party ones whereas the latter has one first party tracker and two third party ones. iOS apps have around twelve trackers on average which just goes to show that you need to be really vigilant if you want to go up against companies that are so dedicated when it comes to tracking you.
H/T: Urlgenius / AtlasVPN.
Read next: GPU’s can be used to track users and that’s really scary
One way in which social media platforms try to target you with ads is through something called tracking. This is a process by which they essentially follow you while you are browsing the web and taking note of the various things that you are doing. This allows them to figure out what your interests are, thereby enabling them to offer you ads that you’d be more likely to click on. Third party trackers are perhaps the most invasive trackers out there, so it is important to know which sites tend to use them most often.
Many would assume that Facebook would have the highest number of trackers in its app, but it turns out that that’s not the case at all. Rather, the companies that have the most trackers in their apps are actually YouTube and TikTok, both of which have around 14 potential trackers apiece which makes them the apps that you should be wary of if you want to safeguard privacy. Another thing to keep in mind is that while both apps have the same number of potential trackers overall, there is a stark contrast regarding which trackers they use.
10 out of the 14 potential trackers that YouTube’s app has are first party trackers which are relatively normal trackers that are designed to track your usage of the app itself. It only has four of the more privacy invading third party trackers that can track what you do on other sites which is something that most people are probably not going to end up being all that comfortable with for a few really obvious reasons.
If you were to check out TikTok’s trackers, though, they tend to paint a far more concerning picture. That’s because 13 of its 14 trackers are third party trackers, and there is no way to know what information is being shared through them. Using TikTok’s app will almost certainly result in you seeing oddly specific ads, and the main reason for that is that it has such a high number of third party trackers and has far more of them than any other social media app that you would want to use.
Telegram is also a pretty serious offender from this perspective since the instant messaging app has around nine third party trackers on its app. Facebook and Instagram are relatively conservative in this respect since the former only has one third party tracker and no first party ones whereas the latter has one first party tracker and two third party ones. iOS apps have around twelve trackers on average which just goes to show that you need to be really vigilant if you want to go up against companies that are so dedicated when it comes to tracking you.
H/T: Urlgenius / AtlasVPN.
Read next: GPU’s can be used to track users and that’s really scary