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World desk5 min

How to Reduce Privacy Risks Across an App’s Data Lifecycle

OWASP’s 2024 M6 category covers inadequate privacy controls. Map app data flows, minimize collection and retention, honor user choices, protect necessary data, and inspect logs, URLs, backups, and SDKs.
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OWASP’s 2024 Mobile Top 10 calls M6 “Inadequate Privacy Controls.” For app teams, the practical response is to map personal data from collection through deletion, collect and retain only what the app needs, give users meaningful control over optional use, and protect the data that remains. Privacy exposure can also come from routine paths such as logs, URL parameters, backups, and third-party SDKs—not just an obvious breach of a database.

What M6 means—and what it does not

M6 is a category in OWASP’s 2024 Mobile Top 10, the latest release identified by OWASP’s Developer Guide. It describes risk from inadequate privacy controls in how an app handles personal information; it does not mean every app has the same vulnerability.

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Personal information can include direct identifiers and sensitive details such as contact, payment, location, health, religious, sexual, and political information. It can also include less obvious data: IP addresses, usage logs, crash reports, and analytics metadata may identify or reveal information about a person.

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OWASP rates M6’s technical impact “LOW” and its business impact “SEVERE.” These are qualitative ratings from its M6 guidance, not measured incident statistics or predictions for every case. The business consequences depend on factors such as how many users are affected, how critical the exposed data is, and applicable regulation.

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How to find privacy-control gaps

Start with a data inventory or data-flow map that covers the app, its backend, analytics and crash reporting, advertising or other SDKs, and any onward recipients. For each data element, record:

  • Its purpose, sensitivity, and collection trigger.
  • Where it goes, including third parties and downstream sharing.
  • How long it is retained and how it is deleted.
  • What choice the user has, how consent is recorded, and how it can be changed or revoked.
  • Who owns the decision and can verify the control.

Then trace the actual paths—not only the intended design. Check what is written to logs, sent in requests, captured in crash reports, included in device backups, or left behind after uninstall and reinstall. OWASP’s MAS-P baseline privacy profile covers areas including permissions, anonymization or pseudonymization, tracking identifiers, privacy disclosures, data management, and prior user consent. Its entries do not all have a dedicated reproducible MASTG test, so a profile requirement should not be mistaken for an automatically available test case.

Does the app really need this personal data?

Question necessity before adding encryption or access restrictions. If the app never collects or retains a data item, that item cannot be exposed from the app’s stores, and fewer data flows need protection. OWASP’s M6 guidance says, “The remaining PII should not be stored or transferred unless absolutely necessary.”

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Reduce precision and frequency

Use the least detailed value that still supports the feature. For example, if a function works with a broad area, coarse location may be sufficient instead of precise location. Reduce update frequency when real-time detail is not needed. Consider aggregation, bucketing, or other transformations only when they meaningfully reduce identification risk for the use case. Hashing alone does not automatically make personal data anonymous.

Set a retention limit

Define when data expires or is deleted rather than keeping it indefinitely by default. The retention period should follow the app’s actual purpose; there is no single duration that fits every kind of data or service. Include deletion paths in the inventory, including copies held by backend services or third parties where applicable.

Can users consent to optional data use?

Consent should be informed and meaningful, and optional collection or processing should respect the user’s choice. That choice must reach relevant third-party SDKs rather than stopping at the app’s own interface. Provide mechanisms to manage, modify, or delete data and to change or withdraw consent.

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OWASP’s MASVS-PRIVACY-1 states: “The app minimizes access to sensitive data and resources.” Its MASVS privacy guidance also addresses user control over data. Review disclosures against what the app and its SDKs actually collect and share; a disclosure that does not match implementation is not an effective privacy control.

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How should the app protect data it must keep?

Minimization does not replace security. For necessary data, use protection appropriate to its sensitivity: secure transport, protected storage, and authentication and authorization that restrict access to the right users and components. Add defense in depth for especially sensitive or critical information. OWASP’s Mobile Top 10 guidance also identifies protecting sensitive device data and data in transit, secure authentication and authorization, and secure third-party integration as baseline concerns.

Threat modeling can help prioritize likely exposure paths. Static and dynamic security checks can uncover common problems, but the OWASP M6 page does not prescribe a particular commercial tool. Choose assessment methods that can test and audit the app’s actual platform behavior and data flows.

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Check common leak paths

Logs, errors, and crash reporting

App code or a library may write personal data into logs, exceptions, or crash reports. Those details may become visible to a platform provider, appear in device logs, or be exposed in on-screen errors. Sanitize sensitive values before display or upload, and inspect what both the app and its libraries emit.

URL query parameters

Sensitive values in query strings can be recorded in server logs, analytics systems, or browser history. OWASP advises sending sensitive values in a request header or body instead of a URL query parameter.

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Backups and uninstall behavior

Decide explicitly which sandbox data is included in device backups; an app sandbox alone does not settle that question. OWASP’s M6 guidance also calls out Android’s hasFragileUserData behavior and recommends setting relevant settings explicitly so the intended information flow is clear. Review what persists after uninstall and what becomes available after reinstall.

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Third-party SDKs and onward sharing

Treat each SDK as part of the app’s data flow. Check what data it collects, when it collects it, where it sends it, and whether its behavior follows the app’s consent state. Include downstream recipients in the inventory and make sure the app’s disclosures reflect actual collection and sharing.

How M6 relates to other mobile risks

M6 focuses on privacy controls and the impact of personal-data exposure or misuse. Insecure storage and communications, weak authentication or authorization, and attacks on the app sandbox can be routes through which data is exposed, but they are distinct security failure paths. Addressing one does not establish that the app’s privacy controls are adequate. OWASP’s broader Mobile Top 10 provides the wider category context.

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