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M6: Inadequate Privacy Controls is the 2024 OWASP Mobile Top 10 category for privacy failures in how an app collects, uses, shares, stores, and deletes personal information. The practical fix is to map every data flow, collect and retain only what the app needs, give users meaningful control, and protect what remains—including data handled by third-party SDKs.

What M6 means in the 2024 OWASP Mobile Top 10

OWASP’s latest Mobile Top 10 was released in 2024, and its final list names M6 “Inadequate Privacy Controls.” It is a risk category, not a claim that every mobile app has the same flaw. M6 concerns privacy safeguards across personal data’s lifecycle: collection, processing, sharing, storage, and deletion. See the OWASP Developer Guide’s Mobile Top 10 and the OWASP M6 guidance.

Personal information is broader than a name, email address, or account number. It can include contact, payment, location, health, religious, sexual, or political information. IP addresses, usage logs, and crash-report or analytics metadata may also be personal information, depending on what they reveal and how they can be linked to a person.

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Am I vulnerable to inadequate privacy controls?

Look for a mismatch between what the app collects or exposes and what its function genuinely needs. A feature may work as designed and still create an M6 risk if it gathers unnecessary detail, shares data without an informed choice, keeps information indefinitely, or leaves it in logs or backups without a clear reason.

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  • The app requests personal data without a specific, necessary purpose, or collects it more precisely or frequently than the feature requires.
  • Users cannot understand optional collection, refuse it, change their choice, or revoke consent where applicable.
  • Third-party analytics, crash reporting, advertising, or other SDKs receive data without being included in the app’s disclosures and consent handling.
  • Personal values appear in logs, exception messages, crash reports, URL query strings, or other places where unintended systems or people may see them.
  • Data persists in device backups or after uninstall in ways the app has not deliberately reviewed.
  • Information lacks suitable protection in transit or storage, or access controls do not match its sensitivity.

OWASP labels M6’s technical impact “LOW” and business impact “SEVERE.” These are OWASP’s qualitative ratings, not incident statistics or a forecast for every app. OWASP says business severity depends on factors such as the number of affected users, the criticality of the data, and applicable regulation.

How do I prevent inadequate privacy controls?

1. Map each data element and where it goes

Start with an inventory or data-flow map that includes the mobile app, backend services, analytics and crash-reporting tools, advertising or other SDKs, and onward recipients. For every data element, record its purpose, sensitivity, collection trigger, destination, retention period, user choice, deletion path, and accountable owner. Include data generated by libraries, not only fields deliberately added by the app team.

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This map makes it possible to compare what the app says it does with what actually happens. OWASP’s MAS-P Baseline Privacy profile covers areas such as permissions, anonymization or pseudonymization, tracking identifiers, privacy disclosures, data management, and prior user consent. Its entries are requirements and guidance, not a guarantee that every weakness has a dedicated, reproducible MASTG test.

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2. Collect less before adding more security controls

Ask of each data element: Does this feature truly need it? Could it function with a less precise, less identifying, or less frequently updated value? OWASP’s M6 guidance states, “The remaining PII should not be stored or transferred unless absolutely necessary.” OWASP MASVS-PRIVACY-1 similarly says, “The app minimizes access to sensitive data and resources.”

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  • Use coarse rather than precise location when the feature does not need exact coordinates.
  • Reduce collection frequency when real-time detail is unnecessary.
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  • Set retention limits and implement expiration or deletion rather than keeping data indefinitely by default.

Minimization reduces the information available to an attacker and the number of data flows the team must secure. It should come before treating encryption or access restrictions as a reason to collect more.

3. Make consent and user control meaningful

Explain optional data use in a way users can understand, and make the app’s behavior respond to their choice. Consent should be considered in third-party processing as well as in the app itself. Provide appropriate ways to manage, modify, or delete data and to change or revoke consent. OWASP’s MASVS-PRIVACY-4 addresses privacy controls for users; the broader privacy requirements are described in the MAS-P profile.

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4. Protect data the app still needs

For necessary data, use secure transport and protected storage, with authentication and authorization appropriate to the data’s sensitivity. Add stronger safeguards where information is especially critical. Review third-party integrations as part of the same threat model: confirm what each SDK collects, where it sends information, how consent state affects processing, and whether the app’s disclosures match actual behavior.

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OWASP’s Developer Guide identifies protection of sensitive device data, protection in transit, secure authentication and authorization, secure third-party integration, and attention to collecting and storing consent as baseline controls.

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5. Check the ordinary places data leaks

  • Logs and errors: App code or a library may put personal values in logs, exception messages, crash reports, or on-screen errors. Sanitize data before display or upload, and check what crash-reporting providers receive.
  • URL query strings: Query values can end up 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.
  • Backups: Decide explicitly which sandbox data belongs in device backups and configure the app accordingly.
  • Uninstall and reinstall: Review what survives removal and how reinstall behavior affects the intended data lifecycle. OWASP’s M6 guidance discusses Android’s hasFragileUserData behavior and recommends setting relevant settings explicitly so the intended information flow is clear.

An app sandbox does not by itself resolve these privacy questions: information may still be copied into logs, backups, SDK pipelines, or other destinations.

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How to assess and prioritize M6 risks

Use the data-flow map to trace a few real user journeys from collection through deletion. For each, check whether the purpose is necessary, whether user choice is honored, whether every recipient is accounted for, whether retention and deletion work, and whether the remaining data is protected in storage and transit. Threat modeling can help prioritize likely exposure paths. OWASP notes that static and dynamic security checks can uncover common issues, but its M6 page does not prescribe a particular commercial tool.

M6 is specifically about privacy controls and the impact of personal-data exposure or misuse. Insecure storage or communication, weak authentication or authorization, and attacks on the app sandbox can be routes through which privacy harm occurs, but OWASP treats those as related risks rather than synonyms for M6. The applicable privacy laws and duties depend on jurisdiction, data, users, and the organization’s role; OWASP’s category alone does not determine an app’s legal obligations.

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OWASP references

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