Most native apps collect far more data than their website equivalents ever could. They request permissions to hardware, sensors, and background processes that browsers deliberately restrict.
On March 27, 2026, the Trump administration released an official White House app for iOS and Android. … Apple requires apps to submit a privacy manifest disclosing what data they collect. The White House app declared an empty array. Zero data collection. Meanwhile, the actual binary contained ten analytics frameworks, including the full OneSignal SDK with a sub-framework specifically for location tracking
Hm. Didn’t think about it like that.
And don’t forget one of the main reasons to push for apps: to drain your attention by showing notifications, maximizing your usage of their products