Apps Putting Your Privacy Most at Risk: Revealed By Elevate
While 65% of adults worldwide have at least one social media account, fewer than 15% understand how their personal data is collected, stored, or protected by these platforms. A new study by cloud network provider Elevate analyzed major apps to identify which ones are putting users’ privacy in the most danger.
The research evaluated each platform using multiple security indicators: confirmed breach incidents, total number of users affected, data sharing policies with third parties, and the number of permissions each app requests from users. Apps were ranked primarily by the total number of users whose data was exposed in confirmed breaches.
Here’s a look at the apps with the worst data breach records:
App
Number of Confirmed Breaches
Total Users Affected
Permissions requested
Facebook
5
~1.4 billion
85
Weibo
1
~538 million
107
X (Twitter)
2
~200 million
50
Pinterest
1
~70 million
29
Telegram
2
~57 million
21
ChatGPT
0
~20 Million
0
*Although there are no confirmed breaches, ChatGPT reportedly experienced a data leak in 2025.
You can access the complete research findings here.
Facebook ranks first as the platform with the worst data security record. With 3.07B users worldwide, the social media platform has experienced five separate confirmed breaches that collectively exposed data from an estimated 1.4B user accounts. Facebook also demands 85 different permissions from users’ devices and freely shares data with third parties, creating multiple security vulnerabilities.
Weibo takes second place in privacy risks. The Chinese social network suffered a data leak only once, although it affected 538M users, nearly its entire user base of 599M. Weibo also requests a high number of permissions at 107, significantly more than any other platform studied.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has faced data security problems too. The platform experienced two separate breaches that compromised data from roughly 200M accounts, a large portion of its 586M users. Unlike Weibo’s high permission demands, X asks for about 50 app permissions. Still, its policy of sharing user data with third parties may be leaving users vulnerable beyond the breaches themselves.
Pinterest comes in fourth place for data safety risks. The image-sharing platform experienced a single breach affecting 70M users out of its 537 million user base. While Pinterest requests only 29 permissions, it still shares user data with third parties, increasing potential security risks.
Telegram lands in fifth despite its privacy-focused reputation. The app collects 21 permissions and only shares data with third parties when users give consent. However, even with these lighter demands, Telegram has still seen two breaches that exposed around 57M users.
ChatGPT is ranked in sixth position. While not experiencing a confirmed breach, the AI chatbot reportedly had an information leak earlier this year. The incident allegedly resulted in 20M of its accounts being compromised.
This entry was posted on October 1, 2025 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Elevate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Apps Putting Your Privacy Most at Risk: Revealed By Elevate
While 65% of adults worldwide have at least one social media account, fewer than 15% understand how their personal data is collected, stored, or protected by these platforms. A new study by cloud network provider Elevate analyzed major apps to identify which ones are putting users’ privacy in the most danger.
The research evaluated each platform using multiple security indicators: confirmed breach incidents, total number of users affected, data sharing policies with third parties, and the number of permissions each app requests from users. Apps were ranked primarily by the total number of users whose data was exposed in confirmed breaches.
Here’s a look at the apps with the worst data breach records:
*Although there are no confirmed breaches, ChatGPT reportedly experienced a data leak in 2025.
You can access the complete research findings here.
Facebook ranks first as the platform with the worst data security record. With 3.07B users worldwide, the social media platform has experienced five separate confirmed breaches that collectively exposed data from an estimated 1.4B user accounts. Facebook also demands 85 different permissions from users’ devices and freely shares data with third parties, creating multiple security vulnerabilities.
Weibo takes second place in privacy risks. The Chinese social network suffered a data leak only once, although it affected 538M users, nearly its entire user base of 599M. Weibo also requests a high number of permissions at 107, significantly more than any other platform studied.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has faced data security problems too. The platform experienced two separate breaches that compromised data from roughly 200M accounts, a large portion of its 586M users. Unlike Weibo’s high permission demands, X asks for about 50 app permissions. Still, its policy of sharing user data with third parties may be leaving users vulnerable beyond the breaches themselves.
Pinterest comes in fourth place for data safety risks. The image-sharing platform experienced a single breach affecting 70M users out of its 537 million user base. While Pinterest requests only 29 permissions, it still shares user data with third parties, increasing potential security risks.
Telegram lands in fifth despite its privacy-focused reputation. The app collects 21 permissions and only shares data with third parties when users give consent. However, even with these lighter demands, Telegram has still seen two breaches that exposed around 57M users.
ChatGPT is ranked in sixth position. While not experiencing a confirmed breach, the AI chatbot reportedly had an information leak earlier this year. The incident allegedly resulted in 20M of its accounts being compromised.
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This entry was posted on October 1, 2025 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Elevate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.