Privacy policy

Of those apps without privacy policies, 76 percent shared sensitive information with third parties, and of those with privacy policies, 79 percent shared data while only about half admitted doing so in their published disclosures. In other words, privacy policies are more aptly referred to as surveillance policies, and that is what I suggest we call them.

In January, viral posts – ironically, widely spread on WhatsApp – claimed the privacy policy gave the service the right to read users’ messages and hand the information over to its parent company, Facebook.