Google tracks highest private data among Big Tech firms: Report

San Francisco, Aug 22

Tech giant Google collects the most data among all the Big Tech companies, including Twitter, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, said a report published on Monday. According to an analysis by StockApps.com, out of the five major digital firms, Google harvests the most data on its users by tracking 39 types of private data for each user.

"Most people do not have the time or patience to read privacy policies that can be several pages long for each website they visit. Also, it is quite unlikely that all users have a background in law to properly grasp the privacy policy," Edith Reads from StockApps.com said in a statement.

"Besides, users lack time, patience, or energy to try to figure out what information websites are storing and how they are using it to their advantage. As a result, users end up allowing Google to harvest all the data they need by agreeing to the privacy policy terms," Reads added.

The report mentioned that Google takes the cake when it comes to tracking most of your data. This should not surprise, given that their entire business model relies on data. Twitter and Facebook both save more information than they need to.

However, with Facebook, most of the data they store is information users enter. Apple is in a league above Amazon in protecting user privacy. It is the most privacy-conscious firm out there. Apple only stores the information that is necessary to maintain users' accounts.

This is because their website is not as reliant on advertising revenue as are Google, Twitter, and Facebook, the report said.

Each of these data firms focuses on a particular category of data and not the quantity of data. Google collects more different types of information for individual users. The firm relies on this data for targeted advertising rather than relying on third-party trackers.

--IANS