4,861 iOS developers sell ads directly while their apps' privacy labels declare no third-party advertising
28 Oct 2026
Data as of 27 October 2026. An App Store privacy label is the developer's own declaration of the data an app collects and what it is used for. app-ads.txt is the developer's own list, on its website, of the ad networks allowed to sell its ad space. Both are public. We put them side by side.
Of 130,619 developer sites we could read, 13,717 hold a DIRECT account (their own, not a reseller's) at 3 or more major ad networks. For 4,861 of those sites (35%), the apps listing that site declare no Third-Party Advertising purpose in their labels: 12,393 apps in all, 4,944 of which also declare no data used to track you.
How we counted
- The developer site is the one on the App Store listing. We fetch its
/app-ads.txt, follow redirects, and parse every line. - A site counts as selling ads when its file names a DIRECT account at 3 or more of the major networks (Google AdMob, AppLovin, Unity, Meta and others).
- An app is flagged when its site counts as selling ads and its privacy label lists no data collected for the purpose Apple calls Third-Party Advertising.
- Sites many unrelated developers share (social profiles, hosting services) are left out: the file there is the platform's, not the developer's.
What this does and doesn't mean
- A file covers a whole site. A studio may sell ads in one game and none in another; app-ads.txt can't tell which.
- Labels are declarations. Neither Apple nor we verify them, and a developer may have reasons to read Apple's categories differently.
- It is a reason to look, not a finding. Each flagged app's page shows its label, and the checker below shows the developer's file, so anyone can see both halves.
Where they are
App Store categories of the flagged apps, by developer sites:
| Category | Developer sites | Apps |
|---|---|---|
| Games | 1,850 | 4,626 |
| Utilities | 559 | 768 |
| Entertainment | 410 | 613 |
| Education | 338 | 986 |
| Productivity | 331 | 480 |
| Health & Fitness | 280 | 438 |
| Photo & Video | 253 | 376 |
| Lifestyle | 252 | 301 |
Which networks they sell through
Major networks with a DIRECT account in the flagged developers' files:
| Network | Developer sites |
|---|---|
| Google AdMob | 4,778 |
| AppLovin | 3,165 |
| Meta Audience Network | 2,826 |
| Unity Ads | 2,804 |
| Liftoff / Vungle | 2,788 |
| Magnite | 2,706 |
| InMobi | 2,545 |
| Mintegral | 2,372 |
| Pangle | 2,203 |
| PubMatic | 2,109 |
Check one developer yourself
Paste any developer site into the app-ads.txt checker to see its networks and who holds each DIRECT account, or look an account up in the sellers.json lookup. Each app's public page shows its label as declared. The full list of flagged apps, with developers, networks and contacts, is the privacy consultants' ready list; a free account sees its first 10 rows.
Method: app-ads.txt files as fetched up to 27 October 2026; privacy labels from the latest App Store capture of each app. How scores and labels are read.