I’ve been having one of those moments lately where you stumble across something that makes your blood boil just a bit. You know the feeling – when you discover that a company has been pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes, and suddenly you’re questioning everything you thought you knew about digital privacy.

The trigger this time was learning about Viber’s data collection practices. Here’s an app owned by Rakuten that markets itself as privacy-focused, complete with all the right buzzwords about end-to-end encryption and respecting user privacy. Yet when someone actually bothered to check the App Store privacy labels, the reality was starkly different. We’re talking about location data, browsing history, contacts, sensitive information – basically everything they can get their hands on – all linked directly to your identity and used to track you across other apps and websites.