A new study has come to a surprising conclusion: iPhone apps tend to invade your privacy as often as Android apps.

"Overall, across the dimensions we studied, we can see that neither platform is clearly better than the other for privacy," says an academic paper entitled "Is the iPhone really better for privacy?"It was presented by researchers at the University of Oxford.

"While it has been argued that the choice of smartphone architecture has the potential to protect user privacy, a clear winner between iOS and Android does not come out of our analysis," the paper adds. "Data sharing for tracking purposes was common on both platforms."

If this sounds vaguely familiar, the Irish team earlier this year concluded similar about the privacy of the core operating systems of android and iOS, while American researchers in 2020 found that the security of iOS apps is almost the same as the security of Android apps.

There is one major caveat to this new survey: 1.It was implemented in 2021/4 before the introduction of iOS 14.5, and the opt-in of tracking labels and app privacy labels is now mandatory on iPhones.

The Oxford team — Konrad Kollnig, Reuben Binns, Max Van Kleek, Nigel Shadbolt, and independent researcher Anastasia Shuba — promised to "assess the impact of these policy changes on future jobs," but their research paper covers more than just tracking.

We have contacted both Apple and Google for comment and will update this story when we receive a reply.

The researchers analyzed the code, permissions, and network traffic of 2018 and later 12,000 randomly selected free apps from each platform updated or released. Each app ran on a real device, either a 14.2-gen iPhone SE running IOS1 or a Google Nexus7 running Android5Nougat.

They found that almost all (89%) of Android apps contained at least 1 tracking library. On IOS, 79% of the apps had at least 1 tracking library, probably Apple's own SKADNetwork, which was tracking the ads that users clicked on. However, 62% of iOS apps are running Google's AdMob ad tracking library, followed by 54% of Ios apps (and 58% of Android apps) running Google Firebase. Facebook trackers were in 28% of Android apps and 26% of iOS apps.

In fact, most apps on either platform (over 90% of Android apps and 60% of iOS) share data with Google-owned tracking companies.

"Tracking by Google. Unlike Android, it occurs widely on iOS where the user did not give consent as part of the device setup process," the paper states.

Almost all the tracking companies observed were based in the United States.About 9.5% of iOS apps and 5% of Android apps used China-based trackers.7.5% of iOS apps and 2% of Android apps used Indian trackers.

The fact that almost all ad tracking companies were based outside Europe may indicate a widespread breach of GDPR privacy laws in Europe (and in the UK), as the researchers used the UK version of the app store's app.This limits the transmission of user data across borders.

The team not only allows iPhone users to block the temporary ad IDs that they flag on your phone to advertisers, but also allows them to know what's going on (on Android, you can update these ad IDs, but you can't block them, and most Android users don't even know they exist). It is not.

However, the team also saw ulterior motives on Apple's side.

"Apple's crackdown on the use of ad IDs may be interpreted as an attempt to divert revenue from Google and other ad providers and motivate the use of alternative monetization models that are more favorable to Apple," the Oxford research paper said.

"Apple is definitely focused on privacy and is trying to gain a competitive advantage by appealing to consumers who are interested in privacy."

Half of the Android apps shared their ad IDs over the Internet, but only 3 in 1 of the iOS apps shared them. And almost all Android apps (a little over 85%) have brought the phone's model number and device name back home-based. 3/2 OF THE IOS APP DID SO.

Android users are being asked to grant Android apps more permissions than iOS users during installation, Oxford researchers said. But that's because iOS gives apps a lot of permissions, such as Internet access, and doesn't offer users the opportunity to accept or deny them.

"Overall, Android has a lot of permissions that iOS doesn't have equivalent permissions, so Android apps may seem more privileged than their ios counterparts," the newspaper said. "But in close research, we're just asking for permissions to access resources that aren't restricted in iOS (e.g. Internet access and network state)."On the other hand, about half of the iOS apps have access to the phone's camera and location, but only about 4 in 1 of the Android apps have access.

If you're not sure if it's a good idea to give an infant smartphone, this study will help solve the problem against it.

"Both platforms have policies that restrict data collection and advertising in children's apps," the newspaper said. It's a good idea.

"Nevertheless, unique device identifiers, especially ad IDs, and access to user locations, were widespread in children's apps. 27% of children's apps on IOS are likely to request a user's location, while 4% on Android are likely to request a user's location."

"About 59% of Android apps shared their ad IDs with third parties over the Internet, while on iOS 25% shared their ad IDs," the paper added. It can be used to build a fine-grained profile about children, putting them at risk.

Will this ever change? Researchers at Oxford want to analyze policy changes introduced in iOS 14.5 and later versions of iOS to see if that makes a difference. But they added that there is a strong incentive to make smartphones more private.

"Since the platform takes a share of any sales through the app store (up to 30%)," says the Oxford paper, "Both Apple and Google have a natural interest in creating business opportunities for app publishers, and they have no such sales. Data about the user to drive."