Where in the World Are Companies Sending Your Personal Data?
'Private' details about your Instagram addiction, porn habits, and banking is of worldwide interest.
By Chandra Steele
Are you big in Japan? Probably not—but your data might be.
The latest iOS update gives people the ability to opt out of apps tracking them across other apps or sites. This inspired Mackeeper, a digital privacy software company, to analyze 56 sites to see where in the world your data goes.
Instagram shared more than all the companies looked at by Mackeeper. Using connection tracker LittleSnitch, it found data from one device was sent to Kansas; Virginia; Dublin; Nairobi; Rio Branco, Brazil; and Taiwan to be stored in databases. These repositories make prime targets for hackers and are subject to other vulnerabilities, as Facebook's recent data leak has proved. Over 500 million Facebook users now have data including their full names, Facebook IDs, phone numbers, and email addresses floating around the internet.