The 2022 edition of the State of Data Privacy report from Arrka is based on a study of 200 mobile apps and websites, including 100 Indian organisations across 25 sectors, 76 organisations in the US and the EU for benchmarking.

The report also studies 30 children’s apps as a separate category.

“We are at an interesting juncture in our data privacy journey as a country, with our data privacy law just around the corner. Bringing out this sixth edition of our annual study gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect on where Indian organisations stand with respect to privacy. And the picture that emerges certainly shows what a long way we have to go as a country. The trends seen are not encouraging – and hence the need for urgent intervention in the form of law is critical,” said Shivangi Nadkarni, CEO of Arrka.

The study focuses on ‘below the surface’ personal data that mobile apps and websites have access to, what kind of data is being collected via permissions, trackers and cookies, whether this is being shared with third parties and whether more data than required is being collected.