Report says certain Android apps send Facebook personal data without obtaining consent

You have to wonder what is really going on at Facebook when it comes to personal data. An organization called Privacy International has just published a report (via Android Police) that reveals how certain Android apps share your personal data with Facebook, even if you don't have a Facebook account. Between August and December 2018, the organization tested 34 Android apps and found that 20 of them share data with Facebook from the moment you open that app.
using the settings on Android, the report says that it might not save you from having your data sent to Facebook from third party apps like Kayak, Shazam and others.
Just before the end of the year, Google wrote an email to Privacy International stating that if a user disables "ads personalization" in the device Advertising ID settings, the advertising identifier cannot be used to create user profiles for advertising purposes. But as Privacy International points out, this doesn't stop the apps from tracking users, or using collected data for non advertising purposes.
While Facebook says that the onus is on app developers to get users to agree that they have the legal right to collect and share personal data, in June the company launched a feature that allows developers to delay collecting data until the user consents. Perhaps not coincidentally, this feature was added 35 days after Europe's draconian General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect. This regulation prevents companies from using subscriber's personal data without consent. Companies that fail to adhere to the rules could be fined 4% of global revenue or the equivalent $23 million dollar, whichever is higher.
"For example, an individual who has installed the following apps that we have tested, "Qibla Connect" (a Muslim prayer app), "Period Tracker Clue" (a period tracker), "Indeed" (a job search app), "My Talking Tom" (a children’s’ app), could be potentially profiled as likely female, likely Muslim, likely job seeker, likely parent."-Privacy International
According to Privacy International, some of the apps that share data with Facebook include Kayak, Skyscanner, Trip Advisor, Shazam, Spotify and Indeed.
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