- Surfshark has made a review of hungry social media applications, including X, Instagram and Snapchat
- Of the 10 social media applications analyzed, X demands the most granular location data
- The data were collected in August 2025 of the Apple app store
Do you think you have your deeds covered? It could be the time to give it a rethink, especially if you are a regular user of X and other social media applications.
A study by the leading VPN Surfshark supplier has analyzed the default location permits required by the 10 best social networks applications in Apple’s App Store and discovered that most of them are very hungry for data, if not stalker.
The X and the Instagram, the threads and Facebook of Elon Musk and Facebook know a lot about where you are … even if you are using one of the best VPN applications.
Your smartphone registers two types of location data: precise and rude.
Thick data are a zoom low resolution option that shares its general location in the world. The precise option is based on GPS, Bluetooth and even IP directions to determine its exact location based on nearby networks. They are the latest data that X and other networks are using, for various degrees.
As Surfshark technology director Donatas Budvytis, he explains, precise location data is found in the most confidential user data category because it can be linked to highly personal behavior and routines.
“All this can lead to build your profile, predict behavior or can be used for specific manipulation and discrimination,” Budvytis said.
Location data can sometimes be useful. For example, add a useful context to the photos (and helps you find a specific image years later). You can also help you locate nearby interesting places and businesses. Social networks, however, seem to be enjoying too much.
Surfshark has discovered that, although eight popular social networks collect precise location data, X is especially interested in it. Instagram, threads and Facebook need a lot, just like Pinterest. Snapchat needs less; LinkedIn and YouTube require almost none.
The collection of user information in this way allows social networks to offer advertisers a better scope, ensuring specific ads based on their location. They could even send you marketing dissemination messages using this type of data.
According to researchers, X and Pinterest can even use location data to track users. There is no clarity about how this information is used or if available for data corridors. In such a scenario, several information from other applications could be used together to establish more specific and valuable data on their actions and interests.
Can’t you use a VPN?
VPNs are excellent for specific privacy uses, but when it comes to location data collected with GPS and other networks, a VPN is less effective.
Because the VPN encrypts its Internet access and enclosures through a safe VPN server, only its IP address can be obfuscated. The social networks that are based on GPS and the proximity to other networks, perhaps the railway stations or the networks of city centers, can ignore the notion that their IP address is established in Berlin if its GPS says London.
While a Public Wi-Fi VPN is definitively recommended, it will only prevent bad actors with access to the network. Elon Musk and Co can still register their location.
So can you prevent X from tracking you?
All social media applications have configurations that you can use to adjust what information is collected. So, although it may be well sharing photos and thoughts and opinions (potentially shameful), at least you can control some of these privacy options.
In the case of X, you can open configuration> privacy and safety> location information and disable the three options (touch the third, explore the configuration, to alternate) to reduce the hunger for the social network of its activities.
Other applications must have similar options. Of course, you can also disable the GPS of your phone when it is not necessary, and review the configuration of location of your phone.
