In all seriousness, that's not malware though. Facebook is a big company competing directly with Google: it makes sense that they want a similar level of access to market insights as their competitor has.
Google collects a lot of data [3], including app and website usage [2] too. They have full access all the analytics a phone OS can provide, after all.
I'm not saying this is ok, but if we claim this is malware then Android is malware too. I rather reserve the malware label to software that is directly designed to harm.
PS: Apple collects app usage too [1], but IMO they're at least more clear about it.
I agree with this sentiment. This is no more harmful than a web mail client that collections personal information for targeted ads, or a mobile operating system by an ads company. The best thing Google has is their marketing department.
Google collects a lot of data [3], including app and website usage [2] too. They have full access all the analytics a phone OS can provide, after all.
I'm not saying this is ok, but if we claim this is malware then Android is malware too. I rather reserve the malware label to software that is directly designed to harm.
PS: Apple collects app usage too [1], but IMO they're at least more clear about it.
[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202100
[2] https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols
[3] https://privacy.google.com/your-data.html
EDIT: Why the downvote? Rather than downvoting, some constructive discussion on spyware and business practices would be IMO more welcome.