Most popular applications employ various methods to track users’ locations in order to deliver targeted advertising. Yet, somewhat unexpectedly, YouTube—despite having billions of users worldwide—turns out to collect the least location data among major platforms.
According to a recent analysis by Surfshark of several widely used applications, X/Twitter was found to be the most aggressive in attempting to gather location information for multiple purposes, including advertising, marketing, data analytics, personalization, and more.
The study evaluated eight platforms with over 100 million global users: X/Twitter, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The analysis examined location tracking across several dimensions—advertising, third-party marketing, in-app promotions, analytics, product personalization, app functionality, and other uses. X/Twitter was the only app that engaged in all seven dimensions.
Surfshark found that while all eight social apps collect precise location data, X/Twitter is particularly relentless, leveraging location tracking to provide advertisers with broader and more detailed audience coverage.
These applications employ multiple methods to gather location information, including but not limited to GPS tracking (with user permission), Wi-Fi-based positioning, and even metadata embedded in images.
This means that privacy tools like VPNs offer limited protection. For example, if a VPN connection routes through a server in London but the surrounding Wi-Fi signals indicate Los Angeles, the app can still accurately place the user in Los Angeles.
Researchers recommend that users disable unnecessary personalization settings. On X/Twitter, for instance, location-related options can be turned off under Settings → Privacy and Safety → Location Information, which may reduce the extent of tracking.
Since most applications do not require GPS to function, users are also advised to revoke GPS permissions directly at the system level, preventing apps from accessing precise geolocation data and thereby preserving greater privacy.
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