The article puts blame on specific apps of Chinese origin, but lot of said in the article can be applied to other apps too, for example: > Kaltheuner, of Priv

The article puts blame on specific apps of Chinese origin, but lot of said in the article can be applied to other apps too, for example: > Kaltheuner, of Privacy International, told BuzzFeed News the policies are vague about how third parties, including potentially the Chinese government or other authorities, can gain access to the data being collected. Google's privacy policy [1] is also very vague. Instead of clearly writing technical details, what data they collect and when, they just give a general description. Take this phrase, for example: > We may also collect information about you from trusted partners, including marketing partners who provide us with information about potential customers of our business services, and security partners who provide us with information to protect against abuse. Or this: > We provide personal information to our affiliates and other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. Absolutely no details. I don't see how Google hiding its "partners" identity is different from Chinese companies hiding their identity. The article says that Chinese company can share the data with their government (without any proofs), but doesn't Google share the data too when required by the law? Also, there is an interesting note hidden in Chrome's policy [2]: > Chrome won't allow a site to access your location without your permission; however, on mobile devices, Chrome automatically shares your location with your default search engine if the Chrome app has permission to access your location and you haven’t blocked geolocation for the associated web site. So instead of singling out a Chinese company, we should pay attention to all of the mobile apps and their practices. Regarding excessive permissions, I think Google could improve the situation by promoting apps with few required permissions in the search results and making permission list more noticeable. For example, currently, if you browse Google Play, permission list is hidden behind a tiny link. [1] https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US [2] https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/privacy/ https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/privacy/