Your Data, Their Power: What Big Tech Collects

Many users are shocked to see Facebook listed with 10 billion (1000 crore) downloads on app stores—far exceeding the world’s 8 billion population and the 4 billion people who use the internet. But this number reflects cumulative installs, not unique users. Reinstalls, updates, multiple devices, and older phones all inflate the figure.

When users install Facebook, they often scroll past a long list of permissions. Some hidden-looking settings, when opened, show what the app may access if the user grants permission. This creates an impression that Facebook secretly captures everything on the device.

What You See and Search Online

Facebook can track web activity if users enable in-app browsing, tracking pixels, or off-Facebook activity. This allows it to know what users see or search, improving ad targeting. Many users misunderstand this as the platform “copying” everything directly.

Access to Contacts and Files

If a user grants permission, Facebook can access contacts, phone numbers, and stored files for features like syncing friends or photo uploads. While this is not 24×7 copying, the ability to read files creates understandable concern.

The Microphone Myth and Audio Access

Users often fear that Facebook “listens all day.” While apps request microphone access for features like voice messages or videos, continuous 24×7 audio recording is blocked by Android and iOS security. Still, the perception persists because ads sometimes match conversations.

WhatsApp Voice Notes and Call Recordings

Voice notes, audio files, and call recordings stored on the device may be accessible only if storage permissions are granted. Users often unknowingly approve these permissions without understanding the consequences.

Financial Activity and Digital Behaviour

Apps cannot directly read banking transactions or ATM withdrawals. However, through linked apps, messaging patterns, and advertising metadata, platforms infer financial behaviour—creating the illusion of deeper surveillance.

Photos, Videos, and App Usage Patterns

Whether uploaded or not, the system can detect photo metadata, number of apps installed, and categories of content consumed. This enables extremely precise behavioural modelling.

Location Tracking: GPS, Cell Towers, and Wi-Fi

Facebook and Google can infer location using GPS, cell ID, and Wi-Fi signals—but only if the user grants permission. Many believe location cannot be turned off; however, what complicates matters is that apps can estimate location even without GPS using passive signals.

Why iPhones Show Location Even When Powered Off

Apple introduced a feature allowing lost iPhones to be tracked even when turned off. This is powered by Bluetooth low-energy beacons, not active GPS tracking. Users misinterpret this as evidence that location “never stops.”

Calendar, Device IDs, and Household Devices

With permissions granted, apps identify device IDs and installed apps. They cannot automatically identify every device in a household—but patterns of connected Wi-Fi networks allow them to infer shared environments.

Inferring Home Address Without Being Told

Facebook’s algorithms deduce home location from nighttime device patterns, check-ins, tagged photos, or delivery addresses. This explains why the system often knows a user’s residence without direct input.

Political, Religious, and Social Beliefs

Even without liking political posts, platforms infer beliefs through:

• Friends’ activities

• Groups viewed

• Content paused on

• Reading patterns
  This is how they predict who a user likely voted for or their religious leanings—based on probabilistic modelling, not mind-reading.

Sexual Orientation and Social Attitudes

“Sexual orientation” in data analytics does not mean knowing someone’s gender identity. It refers to attitudes toward LGBTQ+ content, inferred through behavioural signals, not explicit disclosure.

Health, Fitness, and Lifestyle Modelling

Facebook and Google can estimate fitness levels using:

• Step count (if linked to device data)

• App usage

• Travel patterns
  This feeds into predictive modelling for insurance, advertising, and lifestyle products—sparking fears of hyper-personalized recommendations.

Messages, Emails, and On-Device Content

Platforms cannot legally read private emails or messages without permission. But metadata—timestamps, sender information, behavioural patterns—can still be analysed for ad modelling.

Why People Feel Facebook and Google Know Them Better Than They Know Themselves

Algorithms combine thousands of small data points to build a unified behavioural profile. This creates the impression that platforms have supernatural insight, when in reality it is intelligent pattern recognition.

Google Dashboard: A Window Into Two Decades of Digital Life

Visiting google.com/dashboard reveals detailed user history—searches, videos watched, locations traveled, calendars, photos, and more. Many users are shocked to see years of location history stored even across multiple device changes.

Data Permanence and Legal Evidence

Deleted files from a phone do not erase server-side backups. Because cloud-stored data is persistent, it is often used as primary evidence in court. This is why law enforcement retrieves data from companies, not the user’s device.

Understanding the Power and Danger of Data

From travel routes across India to hotel stays in Europe, Google can reconstruct a user’s entire digital footprint because of permissions and cloud synchronization. This is not secret surveillance—it is the result of user consent combined with powerful analytics. But the implications for privacy, profiling, and digital autonomy are enormous.