Permissions vs. Privacy Policies of Apps in Google Play Store and Apple App Store

Abstract

The “free” business model prevails in mobile apps available through the major channels, hinting at the possibility that users “pay” for the use of the mobile apps by sharing their private data with the developers and platform providers. Several types of personal data and permissions of mobile applications were analyzed. We examined 636 apps in several categories, such as medical, health & fitness, business, finance, and entertainment. The types of personal data being requested by the apps were collected from their privacy policies and the list of permissions was scraped from the platform’s store. We implemented a privacy policy word processing algorithm, the purpose of which was to gain a better insight into the types of data collected. Using the algorithm results, we also performed statistical analyses, based on which we found, expectedly, that free mobile applications collect more data than paid ones. However, there are discrepancies between the permissions we obtained from the privacy policy texts and those stated on the Google Play and Apple App Store websites. More permission requirements emerged from the privacy policy texts than were shown on corresponding app stores, which is a worrying result.