Call of Duty Mobile and Pokémon GO among most invasive game apps

Epicwin, an applications development company, has analyzed the privacy settings of 35 of the most popular gaming apps on the App Store to reveal an index of the most invasive apps to your personal data and privacy. (Note that Epicwin makes its own iPhone app: EpicWin, a streamlined to-do list with a roleplaying spin.)

Recently Apple updated their privacy policy giving more information about what personal information apps require from us, and how they use it. The folks at Epicwin says it’s all too easy to click “Accept” without actually reading the terms being accepted. Users might not realize that these games may share your location, purchase history, identifiers, and usage data with third parties.

For this study, Epicwin researched the most popular gaming apps from the official Apple App Store Awards 2021. The company also conducted a survey of 4,839 gamers from their mailing list to find out their favorite gaming apps.Combining these two resources they determined the 35 most popular games to be included in the research. Key findings from the report: 

Pokémon GO collects 100% of the available personal data linked to your identity

• Pokémon GO is the only app in the study that collects your “Health & Fitness” information
• 51% of gaming apps use at least one category of personal data linked to your identity
• 8 Ball Pool, Call of Duty, Subway Surfers share 60% of personal data categories analyzed with 3rd parties including your location and contact information
• 57% of gaming apps share at least one category of personal data with 3rd parties
• 17% of gaming apps share your location with 3rd parties

Gaming apps that collect the most personal data linked to your identity

1. Pokémon GO
2. 8 Ball Pool
3. Call of Duty: Mobile

Gaming apps that share the most personal data with 3rd parties:

1. 8 Ball Pool
2. Call of Duty: Mobile
3. Subway Surfers

The most invasive gaming apps overall

1. 8 Ball Pool
2. Call of Duty: Mobile
3. Pokémon GO

A full list of key findings, results and charts can be found at https://www.epicwinapp.com/most-invasive-gaming-apps/