Data sharing practices of medicines related apps and the mobile ecosystem: traffic, content, and network analysis

Developers of mobile applications (apps) routinely, and legally, share user data. Most health apps fail to provide privacy assurances or transparency around data sharing practices. User data collected from apps providing medicines information or support may be particularly attractive to cybercriminals or commercial data brokers.

Medicines related apps, which collect sensitive and personal health data, share user data within the mobile ecosystem in much the same way as other types of apps. A small number of companies have the potential to aggregate and perhaps reidentify user data owing to their network position.

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