Pro tip: always read the fine print on your news app's data settings

I found out last week that my news app was quietly uploading my reading history to an ad partner every 15 minutes. I only noticed because I opened the app's settings to turn off notifications, and there was a buried toggle labeled 'share activity for personalized offers.' I saw the number 4,217 next to it, meaning that's how many times it had shared my data since January. The story behind the headline is that most people never check these things, and the app's privacy policy is 28 pages long with the relevant info tucked on page 19. Has anyone else gone through their news apps and found similar hidden settings?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordan_hill2h ago

wait, are you sure it's every 15 minutes? i thought those toggles only update when you open the app, or like, when you're actively scrolling. not saying you're wrong, but the wording might be like "periodically" and that 4,217 number could be sessions, not individual uploads. either way yeah that's super sketchy, most folks never touch that stuff.

dylan_sanchez6m ago

yeah @jordan_hill that "periodically" cop out drives me nuts, it's like every app now has some vague timer running in the background that they never explain. it's the same thing with my phone's location settings, i'll check them once and see five different apps pinging me all day, and i'm just like oh great, another thing i never turned on but somehow it's active.