A recent Surfshark analysis shows that 45% of top mobile apps collect information about the websites their users visit. Of the 40 leading Android and iOS apps analyzed across gen AI, social media, e-commerce, and messaging, 18 report collecting browsing history in their app store privacy labels.
Social media collects the most, followed by e-commerce
Nine out of 10 social media apps collect browsing history on at least one platform. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Pinterest collect it on both Android and iOS. Reddit, LinkedIn, and Snapchat collect it on Android only. Discord was the only social media app that collects it on neither platform.
This data helps platforms build a clearer picture of user interests, target advertising more specifically, and shape in-app feeds based on websites visited outside the app.
Half of the e-commerce apps analyzed collect browsing history on at least one platform. eBay, Shopee, and Shopify collect it on both Android and iOS, while Taobao collects it on iOS only and AliExpress on Android only. The commercial value is direct: the more these apps know about a user’s online interests, the more effectively they can recommend and advertise products. The cost is that browsing habits become increasingly difficult to keep private.
Messaging and generative AI apps also track websites visited
Three messaging apps collect browsing history: Rakuten Viber, Messenger, and LINE. Their parent companies can use this data to build more detailed profiles of users and their interests.
Collection was the least common in the generative AI category. Google Gemini was the only app of the 10 analyzed to report collecting browsing history.
METHODOLOGY
Surfshark analyzed 40 of the most popular mobile apps, 10 each in generative AI, social media, e-commerce, and messaging, selected mainly from Cloudflare’s ranking of the most popular internet services worldwide. For each app, it was recorded whether its Apple App Store privacy label reported collecting “Browsing History” and whether its Google Play Store label reported “Web Browsing History,” then compared results by platform and category. A separate set of browsers was analyzed outside the 40-app sample. For the complete research material behind this study, visit here.
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This entry was posted on September 1, 2026 at 8:18 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Surfshark. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Half of the top mobile apps silently collect browsing history
A recent Surfshark analysis shows that 45% of top mobile apps collect information about the websites their users visit. Of the 40 leading Android and iOS apps analyzed across gen AI, social media, e-commerce, and messaging, 18 report collecting browsing history in their app store privacy labels.
Social media collects the most, followed by e-commerce
Nine out of 10 social media apps collect browsing history on at least one platform. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Pinterest collect it on both Android and iOS. Reddit, LinkedIn, and Snapchat collect it on Android only. Discord was the only social media app that collects it on neither platform.
This data helps platforms build a clearer picture of user interests, target advertising more specifically, and shape in-app feeds based on websites visited outside the app.
Half of the e-commerce apps analyzed collect browsing history on at least one platform. eBay, Shopee, and Shopify collect it on both Android and iOS, while Taobao collects it on iOS only and AliExpress on Android only. The commercial value is direct: the more these apps know about a user’s online interests, the more effectively they can recommend and advertise products. The cost is that browsing habits become increasingly difficult to keep private.
Messaging and generative AI apps also track websites visited
Three messaging apps collect browsing history: Rakuten Viber, Messenger, and LINE. Their parent companies can use this data to build more detailed profiles of users and their interests.
Collection was the least common in the generative AI category. Google Gemini was the only app of the 10 analyzed to report collecting browsing history.
METHODOLOGY
Surfshark analyzed 40 of the most popular mobile apps, 10 each in generative AI, social media, e-commerce, and messaging, selected mainly from Cloudflare’s ranking of the most popular internet services worldwide. For each app, it was recorded whether its Apple App Store privacy label reported collecting “Browsing History” and whether its Google Play Store label reported “Web Browsing History,” then compared results by platform and category. A separate set of browsers was analyzed outside the 40-app sample. For the complete research material behind this study, visit here.
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This entry was posted on September 1, 2026 at 8:18 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Surfshark. 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.