With the growing amounts of freedom internet users have, the amount of privacy decreases as companies monitor actions online. When users create new social media accounts or sign up for websites, companies, and their partners, gain access to various information that can be used in many contexts. Privacy policies often skipped over by consumers, often contain important information that can inform people about what their data will be used to do.

Instagram holds the right to use the information users provide, such as the location of a photo and when it was posted, as well as monitor who the user searches for and communicates with. It can also see the device that Instagram is accessed from. Then, with that data Instagram can share it with third-party partners to personalize their services and ads for a specific user.

Snapchat can follow what a user looks at on the discover page and personalize their widgets based on what the user most often looks at. Also, because Snapchat owns Bitmoji, Snapchat can further customize the app for a user based on their Bitmoji’s design. Snapchat does not save photos after the user opens them, but they are also not deleted immediately after being opened. Snapchat detects when the sender and receiver are done, which means that the deletion process can be delayed or not even started.