In the US, 41% worry about online privacy but still use data-hungry apps

News of data breaches and leaked information surfaces almost daily. Given this, it would be expected that individuals, particularly in the US — a country with over four billion breached accounts in the past two decades and a frequent target of such crimes¹ — would be vigilant and take precautionary measures. However, do people truly understand the severity of the situation and actively protect their personal information?

To explore this question, we conducted a survey in the US, asking people about their privacy concerns. We also inquired about their use of various phone apps, which are known for collecting vast amounts of personal data and often prioritize data collection over user privacy. Let's examine the results of this privacy paradox.

Our sample

We surveyed 1,000 US participants (50% male, 50% female) — 97% had at least a high school diploma, of which 32% had a bachelor’s degree. Most (59%) lived in a big city, the capital, or the suburbs, and 41% were hired workers (paid employment). In our sample, 20% were Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012), 31% were millennials (1981-1996), 27% were Gen X (1965-1980), and 22% were baby boomers (1946-1964). Nearly one-third (30%) said they use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

People who meet any of the following criteria tend to spend significantly less time on their phones:

They are in the age group of 65 to 74 (baby boomers).
They live in rural areas.
They are retired.

Privacy concerns: who is more concerned?

Overall, 41% of the US respondents indicated they are very or extremely concerned about online privacy. There is a significantly higher concern for online privacy among three specific groups of people:

People with higher education (master's degree or higher).
People who use a VPN.
People who have children living in their households.

Millennials are the most privacy-educated and privacy-conscious group

Overall, 17% of the sample was classified as privacy-educated. This means that, in our survey, these participants agreed or strongly agreed with all eight privacy education statements, including:

Being aware of how companies collect and use their personal data;
Understanding the risks of sharing information online;
Being mindful about opening links shared on social media or messaging apps;
Being familiar with privacy policies and terms of service for apps they use.

Some groups, however, have significantly higher proportions. For example, 32% of privacy-educated participants were 25-34 years old, compared to 24% being 35-44 years old. Equally, nearly half (45%) were millennials, a significantly higher proportion than other age groups. Gen Z and millennials are also significantly more aware of how companies collect and use their data. At the same time, Generation X and baby boomers are significantly less confident in their knowledge about it.

Lastly, 23% of the participants were considered privacy policy-conscious. This means that, in our survey, these participants responded often or almost always to all four privacy policy-conscious statements, such as:

Reviewing and adjusting privacy settings on their devices and accounts;
Reading what data an app will collect before installing it.

This group is significantly more likely to be millennial (41%), live in a household with children (41%), and reside in a big city, the capital, or the suburbs (67%). Overall, people in the age group of 25-34 are the most privacy policy-conscious:

They review and adjust privacy settings on their devices and accounts (21% do it almost always);
They check app permissions before installing them on their phone (27% almost always);
They read what data an app will collect before installing it (25% almost always).

Conversely, people aged 18 to 24 are significantly less concerned about their online privacy. They are also significantly less concerned about privacy risks like data breaches, credit card fraud, misuse of personal information, identity theft, and phishing.

Habits of using various apps

After reviewing their privacy habits, we asked our participants questions about their app usage, as we were interested to see how their self-reported attitudes translated into real-life behavior. Therefore, we asked our participants to estimate how many apps they have on their phones. Almost one-third of all US respondents self-report that they have up to ten apps on their phones. A quarter says they have 11-20 apps, and one-fifth says they have 21-30 apps.

While some apps are fundamental to our daily lives, such as banking and messaging, there are many others that we can live without. So we also asked participants to let us know which apps they have on their phones from a list of 48 popular apps selected for their popularity and how data-hungry they were. They were grouped into the following categories:

AI and chatbots;
Banking and finance;
Games;
Health and fitness;
Privacy and education;
Shopping
Social network;
Travel and food.

These apps collect an average of 21 unique data points, but some collect as many as 32, nearly the maximum of 35².

Although people aged 25-34 are the most privacy policy-conscious, millennials have significantly more apps than the overall group. Except for shopping, travel, and food, millennials are significantly more likely than the overall sample to have at least one app of each category on their phones. For example, over half (55%) of millennials had at least one game app, compared to 42% of participants from the overall sample.
Regarding app usage, the privacy-educated segment differentiates the most: they have at least one app from almost all app categories (AI, banking, games, health, productivity, shopping). For example, six in ten participants had at least one game app, significantly higher than 42% of the overall sample.
However, the differences also occur between genders, with men (36%) more often than women (20%) and the total population having at least one AI chatbot app on their phones. No additional significant differences were found between men and women for other app categories.
When it comes to age groups, younger participants (18-24) say they have at least one game (52%), health, and fitness (48%) app, significantly more than the overall sample (42% and 33%, respectively).
A similar trend occurs for AI chatbot apps in the 25-34 group (37% have at least one) and in the 35-44 group (40% have at least one) compared to 28% in the overall sample.
Significantly more participants from the privacy-concerned, privacy-educated, and privacy policy-conscious groups spend six hours or more on their phones. For example, 28% of privacy-educated people spend six hours or more on their phones — significantly more than the overall sample, where 21% spend six hours or more. Additionally, more privacy-educated participants (24%) spend five to six hours on their phones compared to the sample (17%).
This group also shows very and extremely high concern for all mentioned privacy risks (from data breaches to phishing), in significantly higher proportions than the overall group. For example, nearly half (47%) of privacy-concerned participants said they were extremely concerned about data breaches. Notably, in 2024, the US ranked third globally, with over 689 million breached accounts.¹

Do privacy-conscious people not use data-hungry apps?

We examined how the three online privacy-oriented groups differed regarding specific app usage to see if their behavior reflected their self-reported attitudes.

Privacy-educated participants were significantly more likely to be extremely concerned about all the privacy risks compared to the overall group. However, they had significantly higher proportions of app usage across 44 out of the 48 apps in our list. This includes particularly data-hungry social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Messenger (32 data points collected each), shopping apps like Wish (24 data points), dating apps like Bumble (22 data points), and AI chatbots like Gemini (22 data points).

Participants with high privacy concerns expressed significantly greater worry about various privacy risks than the general group, especially regarding credit card fraud (50% extremely concerned, 31% very concerned) and phishing (35%). Interestingly, they were significantly more likely to have the following apps on their phones: Deepseek (an AI chatbot that collects 13 data points), Candy Crush Saga (a game collecting 16 data points), Roblox (a game with 15 data points), and Canva AI Video and Photo Editor (a media editing app collecting 19 data points).

Participants who were conscious of privacy policies expressed significantly greater concern about data risks than the overall sample. Notably, 46% of this group was extremely worried about their data being sold to third parties, compared to only 25% of the overall sample. This privacy-focused group was also significantly more likely to use Candy Crush, which collects 16 data points, 10 of which are used for user tracking.

Privacy policy-conscious participants were the most concerned about apps tracking their location: 42% were extremely concerned, significantly higher than the overall sample. However, this group was more significantly likely to use Pokémon GO, an app that collects precise and coarse location data linked to its users, than the overall sample.

Conclusion

Even though participants may be privacy policy-conscious, concerned about privacy, and privacy-educated, their behavior does not necessarily reflect this. For example, millennials are the most privacy-conscious people but are significantly more likely to have data-hungry apps on their phones. This is concerning because those apps collect data used to track the user and data that can be sold to third parties.

Methodology and sources

The data collection information for each app was sourced from the US Apple App Store page on April 15, 2025. The list of apps was generated by selecting the 100 most popular apps and then grouping them into categories to select a smaller number of apps within each category corresponding to those that collected the most unique data points, arriving at a final list of 48 apps. The App Store provides a list of 35 unique data points categorized into 16 unique data point categories.

Note on data used to track the user: “Tracking refers to the act of linking user or device data collected from your app with user or device data collected from other companies’ apps, websites, or offline properties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes. Tracking also refers to sharing user or device data with data brokers.”

For complete research material behind this study, visit here.