According to data released by Nielsen, apps are still the main way of accessing content on mobile devices, as the time spent on apps (versus mobile web browsers) has increased to 81% from 73% over the past year. The data revealed that the top five apps are Facebook, YouTube, Google Play, Google Search and Gmail, while the most dominant smartphone platforms are Android and iOS, accounting for 88% of downloads. Nielsen's data also indicated that the average time spent on apps per day has increased by two minutes to a total of 39 minutes a day. 

Google is being sued for changing its privacy policy in order to collect data about signed-in users across a variety of platforms, including Android, Gmail and YouTube. "This change violates Google's prior privacy policies, which deceived and misled consumers by stating that Google would not utilize information provided by a consumer in connection with his or her use of one service, with any other service, for any reason, without the consumer's consent," said David Nisenbaum, Pedro Marti and Allison Weiss in their complaint against the company which was filed on Wednesday.  

Google has gone ahead and implemented its privacy policy changes, despite worldwide criticism. The changes will allow data collected by the Google service to be shared with other platforms including YouTube, Gmail and Blogger. Google said the new system would improve search results, but data regulators in France have questioned the legality of the changes and have launched a Europe-wide investigation.

Iran has blocked access to Google's HTTPS websites such as Gmail and YouTube. According to an email by Google, the block has been in effect right since February 10. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Iranian government decided to enforce this ban after coming across rumours that an anti-government protest was being planned for the thirty-third anniversary of the Iranian revolution. 

According to Nielsen’s latest research on smartphone usage, Facebook, YouTube, and Gmail apps are the most popular smartphone apps among Android owners aged 18 and older. According to the findings, Facebook’s popular app is the most active among Android owners aged 18-34, with an active reach of about 80%. Google’s YouTube app also gets heavy usage from Android smartphone owners, with 64% of users aged 18 -24 having used it in the past 30 days.