USE of mobile data is skyrocketing. But where does all that data go? Is it realistic that hundreds of megabytes can disappear in a week or two?Consumers are steadily using more and more data, and at faster speeds. But disappearing data has now become part of a broader investigation by the national consumer commission into network service providers, after frustration expressed by users who were unable to determine where it all went.Last year, mobile network operators, especially MTN, were heavily criticised for what became known as “data depletion”. New research by Internet browsing platform Opera shows that apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Gmail drain mobile data, even when they only operate in the background.By surveying the data use of millions of Opera Max users, Opera showed that 30% of data was used by apps that ran in the background. The results are expected to be similar for users of other browsing platforms like Chrome or Safari.Facebook Messenger and Gmail are the...
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