Smartphone App Users Are Data-Mined Even When Not Using the Apps

People walk by as the social network Facebook opens a pop-up kiosk for one day in Bryant Park in New York, Dec. 13, 2018, where it fields questions about its data-sharing practices and teach users how to understand its new privacy controls. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

Commentary

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Apple Bans App Used by Facebook in Escalating Privacy Fight,” failed to acknowledge how smartphone apps work.