Should You Let Apps Track You? Here's What Tech Pros Personally Choose

Bronek Kaminski via Getty Images Apps can track your location and even lifestyle choices if you choose to allow them to. It’s a question that users have asked a lot since 2021 when Apple phones began a policy called App Tracking Transparency, which forbids app makers from tracking user activity across other apps without permission. Apps like Uber or DoorDash could track users’ location and spending to suggest ‘local’ or ‘nearby’ deals.” Some of you, of course, will think, “Hey, cool, thanks. On the one hand, Robin Chataut, an assistant professor of cybersecurity and computer science at Quinnipiac University, said, “If you trust the app and are comfortable with it collecting data on your activities across other apps, you can choose to allow tracking.” In other words, your world isn’t likely to fall apart. “When it comes to permissions and tracking within an app, I do indeed have that enabled for apps where it’s useful or needed,” Fisher said, citing a couple of examples like Google Maps or his banking app, “where it helps check for card security or legitimacy of transactions.” Gajen Sunthara is the chief technology officer at SimpliFed, an infant nutrition website that also doesn’t track apps across apps.