Data safety and app privacy: what the developer declared

Both stores ask the developer to say what the app does with a user's data and print the answer on the public page. Google calls it Data safety, Apple calls it App Privacy. On 6 November 2026 this desk read both for the 6 listings of MetaTrader 4 and 5 and cTrader. The table quotes the declarations; the text explains what each store says about their status.

The declarations, as the pages print them

One row per statement. The Play lines are the Data safety summary; the App Store lines are the label's groups with their categories. Pages read here: MetaTrader 4 and 5 and cTrader in the Philippines.

What the stores say their blocks are

Google prints a paragraph at the head of every block: “Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.” The final sentence is the one to keep: the block is the developer's declaration shown by the store, not something Google measured in the app. On the App Store, the block opens with the developer's name and says the privacy practices “may include handling of data as described below”; the detail view says the information has not been verified by Apple.

Google Play: MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading

The block of the app under MetaQuotes Software Corp. prints these lines: “No data shared with third parties”; “This app may collect these data types” — “Personal info, Financial info and 4 others”; “Data is encrypted in transit”; “You can request that data be deleted”. The lines are a summary; the page keeps the full list of data types behind a “See details” link, which this site did not open.

Google Play: MetaTrader 5 — Forex, Stocks

The block of the app under MetaQuotes Software Corp. prints these lines: “No data shared with third parties”; “This app may collect these data types” — “Personal info, Financial info and 3 others”; “Data is encrypted in transit”; “You can request that data be deleted”. The lines are a summary; the page keeps the full list of data types behind a “See details” link, which this site did not open.

Google Play: cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts

The block of the app under Spotware prints these lines: “This app may share these data types with third parties” — “Personal info and Device or other IDs”; “This app may collect these data types” — “Personal info, App info and performance, and Device or other IDs”; “Data is encrypted in transit”; “You can request that data be deleted”. The lines are a summary; the page keeps the full list of data types behind a “See details” link, which this site did not open.

App Store: MetaTrader 4

The privacy label of the app published by MetaQuotes Software Corp.: under “Data Linked to You” it lists 3 categories: Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers; under “Data Not Linked to You” it lists 2 categories: Usage Data, Diagnostics. The page's wording for “Data Linked to You” is that the data “may be collected and linked to your identity”; for tracking, that it “may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies”.

App Store: MetaTrader 5

The privacy label of the app published by MetaQuotes Software Corp.: under “Data Linked to You” it lists 4 categories: Financial Info, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers; under “Data Not Linked to You” it lists 2 categories: Usage Data, Diagnostics. The page's wording for “Data Linked to You” is that the data “may be collected and linked to your identity”; for tracking, that it “may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies”.

App Store: cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts

The privacy label of the app published by cTrader Ltd: under “Data Not Linked to You” it lists 3 categories: Contact Info, Identifiers, Diagnostics. This label has no group for data linked to the user or used to track the user; it lists data not linked to the user only.

Reading the declarations together

On Google Play the first line of each block reads: MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading: “No data shared with third parties”; MetaTrader 5 — Forex, Stocks: “No data shared with third parties”; cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts: “This app may share these data types with third parties”. On the App Store the label groups are: MetaTrader 4: Data Linked to You, Data Not Linked to You; MetaTrader 5: Data Linked to You, Data Not Linked to You; cTrader: CFD Trading & Charts: Data Not Linked to You. The two stores ask different questions in different formats, so the declarations are not identical and are not meant to be. Where two listings of one brand declare different things, this site reports the contrast once, with the date, and leaves the question open: it cannot tell whether the apps differ in what they do, whether the declarations were filled in on different assumptions or whether one is out of date.

Missing from the declarations is what a reader usually wants to know: what happens to documents and photographs sent in an identity check, and for how long they are kept. That is answered, if at all, in the privacy policy the pages link to and in the account documents. This site read neither.

The lines of the Play block, one by one

The lines that occur on the pages read here, with what each says in plain words: “No data shared with third parties” - the developer states that the app does not hand user data to other companies; “This app may collect these data types” - the developer states that the listed kinds of data may be gathered by the app; “Data is encrypted in transit” - the developer states that data is scrambled while it travels between the phone and the server; “You can request that data be deleted” - the developer states that a user may ask for their data to be erased; “This app may share these data types with third parties” - the developer states that the listed kinds of data may be passed to other companies. “Shared” means passed to another company; “collected” means gathered by the app itself, and the two are asked separately. The block does not say how long data is kept or for what purpose beyond what the policy link states.

What the App Store's category names mean

Apple's label sorts data into named categories. The ones that occur on these pages: Contact Info (name, e-mail address, phone number or other contact details); User Content (content the user creates or sends in the app); Identifiers (a user or device identifier); Usage Data (how the app is used, such as product interaction); Diagnostics (crash logs and performance data); Financial Info (payment information, credit information or other financial details). The category name says what kind of data is meant, not how much of it is collected or what is done with it; the page gives no counts. The three group headings — linked to you, not linked to you and used to track you — say what the developer declares about the link between the data and the user.

What a reader can do with it

Read the declaration before installing, not after. If a category on the label is something you do not want to give, the store page tells you before you have given it. Open the privacy policy the page links to; MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading links one on metaquotes.net. Look for what the declaration says about deletion: the Play block says whether you can request that data be deleted; the lines read here do not say how. None of this needs an account; it is the one part of an app that the stores make public before you decide.

The limits of the declaration pages

A declaration states the developer's intent at one moment. It is no security audit or certificate and no promise for the future; Google says it “may update it over time”. It also says little about the broker as a company: the entity holding an account, its regulator and the courts of the country that apply are matters for the account documents.