Hand Me the Paper #16: Third-Party Tracking in the Mobile Ecosystem
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What I Read This Week:
Third-Party Tracking in the Mobile Ecosystem by Reuben Binns, Ulrik Lyngs, Max Van Kleek, Jun Zhao, Timothy Libert, and Nigel Shadbolt. [Link, Link with my scribbles]
What You Should Know:
Since Apple is cracking down on mobile third-party tracking with the recent iOS 14.5 update, it makes some sense to look at how the ecosystem was structured and how it will be impacted.
The extent of tracking differs between categories of apps; news apps and apps targeted at children appear to be amongst the worst in terms of the number of third-party trackers associated with them.
Third party-tracking is also highly transnational, so localisation norms are likely to impact and reshape the industry in a fundamental manner.
Over 20% of apps in the News, Family, and Games & Entertainment super genres are linked to more than ten tracker companies.
Meanwhile, the lowest median number of trackers are found within Productivity & Tools, Education, Communication & Social, and Health & Lifestyle apps. Over 10% of Productivity & Tools, Education and Communication & Social apps have no trackers at all.
Data Sufficiency and Graphs (from the source):
What I Have Been Reading:
Music to My Ears: