Nova Launcher and its associated app, Sesame Universal Search, have been acquired by Branch, a mobile links and analytics company. Since you’re almost certainly not familiar with Branch, the new parent company’s primary business is to give an app’s devs a platform to manage and analyze deep links into their creations. Its tech has been integrated into over 100,000 apps since 2014, including those from companies like Adobe, BuzzFeed, and Yelp.
Obviously, not every acquisition is a bad one, but users are naturally concerned when an analytics company buys their product out. One only has to remember what Facebook did with WhatsApp’s metadata after they bought it out. All the normal assurances have been given though, and we sincerely hope the heavy breathing of the various regulators ensures the assurances are honoured.
See https://www.androidpolice.com/nova-launcher-acquired-by-branch/
#technology #privacy #android #novalauncher