Facebook, X and other companies are mining iPhone user data through app notifications, research finds

IPhone users are handing over their personal data with a click of a button, new research finds.

Popular apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X are harvesting user information through notifications, even when the user opts not to open their alerts.

Even more concerning, it’s not entirely clear why the tech companies are collecting the data, much of which is unrelated to improving the user experience, according to tests by security researchers at Mysk Inc., an app development company.

“We were surprised to learn that this practice is widely used,” Tommy Mysk told Gizmodo, which reported the disturbing trend Thursday.

“Who would have known that an innocuous action as simple as dismissing a notification would trigger sending a lot of unique device information to remote servers? It is worrying when you think about the fact that developers can do that on-demand.”

According to the research, the grifty technique is not in violation of Apple’s privacy rules because it utilizes a method called “fingerprinting,” which identifies a user based on details about their device in order to send targeted ads.