Covert Partnerships, Hidden Permissions: How AI Apps Enab...

Covert Partnerships, Hidden Permissions: How AI Apps Enable Mass Surveillance—Even from Companies You Don’t Use

You’re Not Just Being Watched—You’re Being Shared

Today’s AI-infused mobile apps, browsers, chatbots, and gaming platforms don’t just monitor your behavior—they enable multiple companies and governments to monitor, track, and data mine you for profits simultaneously through cross-platform surveillance technologies, often without your knowledge or consent.

And sometimes, without you even using their services.

This is made possible by something most users have never heard of: hidden permissions and embedded surveillance command strings.

The Hidden Code Inside Your Favorite Apps

When you install a mobile app, you’re prompted to grant a few familiar permissions:

Location and motion data
Camera and microphone
Contacts and calendar information
Text and emails
Other highly confidential business and personal information

But under the hood, many apps include obscure or custom permissions that enable deeper access—often by third-party companies you’ve never heard of or interacted with.

Examples of Hidden or Vendor-Specific Permissions:

Xml CopyEdit

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BAIDU.LOCATION.SERVICE"/>

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FB.TONKIN.ACCESS"/>

<uses-permission android:name="com.samsung.android.providers.context.permission.WRITE_USE_APP_FEATURE_SURVEY"/>

<uses-permission android:name="com.microsoft.msaccount.permission.DATA_USAGE"/>

<uses-permission android:name="com.amazon.device.messaging.permission.RECEIVE"/>

<uses-permission android:name="com.tencent.permission.PUSH"/>

These permissions:

Are not meaningfully disclosed to users
Operate silently at the system or privileged level
Allow continuous data collection and cross-app surveillance
Enable co-surveillance between competitors
Often cannot be disabled without rooting or modifying the OS

Surveillance-as-a-Service: The Business Model You Never Agreed To

App developers don’t operate in isolation. They often embed third-party SDKs (Software Development Kits) from major tech firms such as Meta (Facebook), Google, ByteDance, Baidu, Amazon, Microsoft, Tencent, and Samsung.

These SDKs enable shared surveillance—multiple entities accessing your behavior and device activity simultaneously, even when you're not using their services.

Real-World Example:

You install a free flashlight or gaming app.

Without your knowledge:

Meta collects your session data via its Ads SDK
Baidu tracks your location via its Maps or Analytics SDK
Samsung logs behavioral events via a system-level context app
Microsoft captures metadata through Outlook integrations
Tencent collects notification behavior via push services
Amazon monitors ad-clicks or in-app purchases for targeting

All of this can occur silently—no prompts, no alerts, no consent.

Even Governments Can Piggyback This Surveillance Chain

China: Laws mandate that ByteDance, Tencent, Baidu, and others provide user data to authorities.
United States: The government accesses data via NSLs, FISA orders, and the Patriot Act—especially when apps include SDKs from "cooperative" vendors.
Other Nations: Some simply purchase access from data brokers or ad networks.

In short: apps aren’t just tools. They are digital spy hubs, and you don’t control who’s listening.

AI Makes It Worse

AI-powered apps don’t just track what you do. They learn how you think, feel, and respond.

They extract:

Emotional tone (via voice or language)
Typing speed and browsing behavior
Preferences, insecurities, and emotional triggers

From this, they can predict:

Your mood
Your shopping behavior
Your political beliefs
Your psychological vulnerabilities

This psychographic data is not kept in one place—it can be sold, licensed, or shared among dozens of firms and nation-state actors.

No Consent. No Control. No Transparency.

What users are never told:

How many entities access their data from a single app
What’s being collected—and by whom
Which foreign governments can obtain their data
That many permissions are hardcoded at the OS level
That this surveillance uses their own mobile data plans

This Isn’t Just a Privacy Issue—It’s a Digital Rights Emergency

What we’re facing is a corporate-led, AI-powered surveillance regime where:

No warrants are needed
Opt-out mechanisms are meaningless
Transparency is nonexistent
And no platform is neutral

The Solution: An Electronic Bill of Rights

We need enforceable laws that treat digital rights as civil rights. Key policy demands include:

Ban on hidden permissions enabling third-party cross-platform surveillance and data mining for profits
Mandatory transparency about all embedded SDKs and data partners
User sovereignty—the right to revoke all permissions and delete data, even system-level
Disclosure of surveillance networks, including foreign and domestic entities
AI transparency enforcement—users must be informed if their data is used to train or fuel AI

Final Thought: You Don’t Have to Use Their App to Be Tracked

Today’s surveillance architecture is interconnected, collaborative, and hidden.

A single app can allow dozens of companies—some competitors, some adversaries—to monitor you.

You’re not just the product.

You’re the shared resource—tracked, profiled, and sold in real time.

It’s Time to Expose and Dismantle This System

Until we enact meaningful, enforceable digital rights, your privacy settings are just a placebo.

About the Author

Rex M. Lee is a Privacy and Cybersecurity Advisor, Tech Journalist and a Senior Tech/Telecom Industry Analyst for BlackOps Partners, Washington, DC. Find more information at CyberTalkTV.com

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