Threads user data collection: Permissions explained

❘ Published: 2023-07-11T11:20:01

Dexerto

Threads collects various user data like user location, personal details, financial status, messages and photos, health status, and more. Should you be worried? Let’s find out.

Threads, the Instagram-linked social media platform, has been in the news for most of last week. This newest social media platform has amassed over 100 million users in no time and has also outpaced the likes of ChatGPT and others to achieve this milestone.

That said, it has been under a lot of scrutiny for the amount of user data it collects. According to the App Store listing, Threads collect personal details like the make of your phone, the apps you use, your location, personal information, health and fitness data, in-app purchases, messages, photos, videos, and more.

Should you be worried about this data collection? Let’s find out.

What data Threads collects?

According to the App Store specifications, Threads collects a large amount of user data. This includes

Financial info	Search history
Health and fitness	Browsing history
Purchases	Identifiers
Location	Usage data
Contact info	Sensitive info
Contacts	Diagnostics
User content like images, videos and more	Other data

That said, a deeper inspection of Meta’s privacy policy suggests that the social media behemoth tracks your in-app activity on its platforms, including the content you post or the posts you interact with. Besides this, it also tracks the advertisements you interact with, videos or images you capture, in-app purchases on Meta’s apps, messages you receive and share on the apps, and other features you interact with.
The apps also track your personally identifiable information like name, email address, and location. That is not all; it also tracks the usage of third-party apps that interact with Threads, apart from device details, software, device identifiers, signals from device settings, and your IP address.
The data that Threads collect is similar to what Meta’s other social media apps, Instagram and Facebook, collect. If you’re using Instagram, then you’ve already shared these personal details with Meta.

What does Meta do with your data?

Threads

There is no denying that Meta collects a lot of sensitive data. Almost every other mobile app, including Twitter, that depends on advertisement revenue tracks user’s behavior to better serve targeted advertisements.
However, as of now, Threads doesn’t serve any advertisements, and since it has a deep connection with Instagram, Meta already has most of these details. So, it’s surprising that Meta is hoarding so much sensitive user data.
Meta’s privacy policy also says, “Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age.” While it’s unclear what Meta means by this, it could mean that Meta might be processing age-related data along with usage habits to create new features or push extremely age-relevant advertisements.

What does Meta do with your data?

Should you use Threads?

The fact that social media apps collect user data is nothing new. Even Twitter collects a lot of data to target its advertisements better. However, Meta is facing all the flack because its data collection practices and privacy policies take this a step ahead. Threads privacy policies state that certain collected data information is shared with third-party services.
Meta has also implemented a predatory policy to stop users from quitting Threads. Suppose you didn’t like the platform after joining it. In that case, you cannot delete your account without deactivating the linked Instagram account.
That said, if you’re using a modern smartphone and have a lot of apps on it, there is a possibility that you share almost everything about your life with the developers.
Hence, using any application or a social media platform is your decision, and you should carefully read the relevant policies. If you’re not ok with any of them, you should look for ways to get off that platform.

Check out more articles on Threads below.