1. Pinterest
Pinterest has been a beloved app for decades, for the way it helps people put together particular visions, get inspired, and get organized. It's a great place for keeping outfit ideas, room decor inspiration, recipes you want to try, and more. However, you might not realize that it can also hold onto your location information.
"Pinterest might seem harmless, when in fact, it keeps location data to provide, as they put it, 'relevant local content,'" explains tech expert Rory Bokser with Moken. "But as they discovered, that means it reads Wi-Fi access points, IP addresses, and geotags from photo uploads. Turning off location at the OS level won't stop this second data from being collected, painting a pattern all the same."
2. Meta Apps
If you're a smartphone user in this day and age, you likely know what Meta is. If you don't, it's the name for the multinational tech conglomerate that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and more. It was originally Facebook Inc., but rebranded to Meta in 2021. Although these are some of the most popular apps found on smartphones, when used improperly, they can also be the most dangerous.
"Both Instagram and Facebook pull information from users' photo metadata and their previous check-ins," says tech expert and owner of The Big Phone Store, Steven Athwal. "They also use their Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth beacons, and background app activity to determine locations. The use of this data to provide targeted adverts, local content recommendations, Facebook's 'nearby friends' feature, and relevant local event suggestions. So, even without explicit consent, Meta captures users' in-app behavior to update their location. Also worth mentioning is that Meta has an ecosystem, so your data is blended across platforms to gain an even more detailed picture of your movements."
To keep yourself safe, every time you download a new app or update your device, you can go over your Location Services settings and double-check which apps have access to it, and whether they can have access all of the time or only "while using," which is typically more ideal.