How Many Apps Actually Have a Working Privacy Policy
A 2022 academic study scanned over two million apps in Apple's iOS App Store and found that only about 22.5% of them have a privacy policy link that actually works. It's not that most apps forgot to add a link, most did, it's that most of those links are broken.
Last updated: September 2026
Key findings
- Researchers analyzed 2,010,403 unique apps in the iOS App Store (F1).
- 39.3% of apps provided no privacy policy link at all (F2).
- Of the 58.5% that did provide a link (F3), 61.6% of those links were broken, dead, non-English, or otherwise failed to lead to an actual policy (F4).
- Put those together and only about 22.5% of all apps analyzed had a privacy policy link that actually worked (F5), while roughly 36.0% had a link that looked present but was effectively dead (F6).
The study behind the numbers
The figures come from "Do the Right Thing: A Privacy Policy Adherence Analysis of over Two Million Apps in Apple iOS App Store," published in the peer-reviewed journal Sensors (MDPI) in November 2022. The researchers scanned 2,010,403 apps across 24 App Store categories, checking not just whether a privacy policy link existed, but whether it actually led to a real, working privacy policy (F1). That second check is the part most casual coverage of "app privacy" skips.
The breakdown
39.3% of apps had no privacy policy link at all (F2). That goes against the store rules, since both Apple and Google require one. The remaining 58.5% did provide a link (F3), which sounds like most of the ecosystem is compliant, until you check where those links actually go.
Of that 58.5%, the study found 61.6% of the links were broken: dead URLs, redirects to a generic homepage, non-English pages for an English-market app, or pages that simply weren't a privacy policy (F4). Only 38.4% of provided links actually worked as intended.
Put the two numbers together and the headline figure isn't "39% of apps lack a policy." It's that only 22.5% of all apps analyzed have a privacy policy link that a user (or a regulator) could actually open and read (F5). Roughly 36.0% of all apps fall into a third, easy-to-miss category: they look compliant at a glance because a link exists, but the link doesn't lead anywhere useful (F6). A small remainder of apps fell outside both the "no link" and "has a link" categories in the source data, likely cases where link presence itself was ambiguous at scan time.
The researchers' own conclusion: neither Apple nor Google appears to systematically enforce the privacy policy requirement they both state in their developer guidelines, despite it being a listed submission requirement for both stores.
Where 2,010,403 apps landed
Only the green slice, about 22.5% of apps, has a privacy policy a user could actually open.
The full data table
| ID | Figure | Value | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | Total apps analyzed | 2,010,403 | MDPI Sensors | Nov 2022 |
| F2 | Apps with no privacy policy link | 39.3% | MDPI Sensors | Nov 2022 |
| F3 | Apps providing some link | 58.5% | MDPI Sensors | Nov 2022 |
| F4 | Provided links that were broken/invalid | 61.6% | MDPI Sensors | Nov 2022 |
| F5 | All apps with a working policy link (computed) | 22.5% | Computed from F3 × (1−F4) | 2022 data |
| F6 | All apps with a broken policy link (computed) | 36.0% | Computed from F3 × F4 | 2022 data |
Methodology
All six figures trace to one peer-reviewed source: Srinath et al.'s 2022 study in Sensors (MDPI), which scanned 2,010,403 iOS App Store apps and checked not just for the presence of a privacy policy link but whether it resolved to an actual policy. F5 and F6 are computed from the study's own reported percentages (F3 and F4), with the formula shown in the data table above, not independently re-measured.
Sources
- Srinath, M. et al., "Do the Right Thing: A Privacy Policy Adherence Analysis of over Two Million Apps in Apple iOS App Store," Sensors (MDPI), November 2022
Source accessed and figures re-checked September 25, 2026.
How to cite this page
Frequently asked questions
Does Apple require apps to have a privacy policy?
Yes, it's a listed App Store submission requirement. The study's finding is that the requirement isn't consistently enforced in practice, not that it doesn't exist. See privacy policy for apps for what actually needs to be in one.
Is this data specific to iOS, or does it cover Android too?
This particular study covers Apple's iOS App Store only. The researchers noted that Google Play has its own separate compliance issues, but the 2,010,403-app dataset here is iOS-specific.
What happens if my app doesn't have a working privacy policy link?
Beyond the compliance risk with Apple or Google, it also means anyone reviewing your app, a user, a journalist, a regulator, can't verify what you actually do with their data. Our app privacy policy generator builds one you can host and link in a few minutes.
This page was compiled by Cedrick Reese from a single peer-reviewed academic study covering over two million apps, opened and checked directly rather than taken from secondhand coverage. Two of the six figures here are simple computed combinations of the study's own reported percentages, with the formula shown rather than hidden. It's checked periodically for a newer version of the underlying research and updated if one appears.