APPMONITOR: A toolkit for monitoring third-party tracking across iOS and Android apps

APPMONITOR addresses the critical need for means and measures to monitor digital tracking and datafication by third-parties in mobile apps in Europe, building on the ERC StG DATAFIED LIVING.

With EU implementing powerful regulations to curb unwanted and illegitimate collection, mining, and compilation of user data across digital technologies, member states now have a strong political mandate to regulate the booming data economy.

Yet, the successful enforcement of these schemes relies on the introduction of systematic monitoring, and a coherence between the stated ambitions and the means implemented to reach said goals.

The objectives of this POC are 1) to deliver the first empirical toolkit for comparing mobile tracking across the iOS and Android ecologies and across different regional contexts within the EU thereby addressing a significant knowledge gap concerning tracking in iOS apps, 2) to use the toolkit to test the efficacy of new legal instruments for app data transparency, and 3) to develop and test a prototype for scrutinizing and labelling Android and iOS apps according to their embedding of third-party tracking that can assist regulators in enforcing legislation against illegitimate tracking and create transparency for citizens to make informed choices about app download, factoring in the app’s embedded third-party tracking.

APPMONITOR’s innovation will be developed as open-source tools to make it possible for regulatory actors, as well as privacy, digital rights and data ethics NGOs to use and further develop them in response to market and technology changes.

APPMONITOR thus presents a unique opportunity for a breakthrough in regulation of the mobile data market to benefit European citizens, a much-needed set of tools for regulatory actors to enforce EU legislation, and critical knowledge for policy-makers to qualify future regulation.