Is Safeway safe to use?

Safeway integrates 34 third-party SDKs spanning infrastructure, analytics, and media. Its App Store privacy label declares cross-app tracking via Identifiers. It collects data linked to your identity including Contact Info and Diagnostics. It includes 1 advertising or attribution SDK. Whether this is acceptable depends on your personal privacy preferences.

What permissions does Safeway need?

Safeway requests 13 iOS permissions: App Tracking Transparency, Camera, Microphone, Photo Library, Location (When In Use), Location (Always), Location (Always & When In Use), Motion & Fitness, HealthKit (Read), HealthKit (Write), Speech Recognition, Face ID, and Bluetooth.

What data does Safeway collect?

According to its App Store privacy label, Safeway declares cross-app tracking via Identifiers. It collects data linked to your identity including Contact Info and Diagnostics. It collects Purchases, Location, Search History, Identifiers, and Usage Data not linked to your identity.

How many SDKs does Safeway have?

Safeway integrates 34 third-party SDKs. 1 for advertising, 4 for analytics, 7 for infrastructure, and 17 for other.

Does Safeway use Google SDKs?

Yes. Safeway includes 3 Google or Firebase SDKs: Google Data Transport, Google Toolbox for Mac, and Google Utilities. These are used for cloud infrastructure and services, not advertising.

Does Safeway use App Tracking Transparency?

Yes. Safeway requests the App Tracking Transparency permission, which means it asks for your consent to track your activity across other companies' apps and websites.

Does Safeway access your location?

Yes. Safeway requests location access. The developer states: "Safeway uses your location in the foreground to provide the best possible experience such as finding the nearest store and bringing your groceries out faster during pickup.".

Does Safeway access your camera or microphone?

Safeway requests access to both your camera and microphone. The developer says camera access is for "This will enable you to use the camera to scan or take photos for use in our app". Microphone access is for "This app requires access to Microphone to allow users send voice feedback". These permissions are only active when you grant them in iOS Settings.

Does Safeway run in the background?

Yes. Safeway registers 2 background modes, which means it can perform certain tasks when you're not actively using it.

What are some alternatives to Safeway?

Other shopping apps include Harbor Freight , AE + Aerie , Afterpay , ALDI Grocery Pickup & Delivery , AliExpress , and Victoria's Secret . Each app takes a different approach to shopping and varies in its data collection and SDK usage.

Shopping · Privacy report

Safeway Deals & Delivery

Free · ★4.8 · Albertsons Companies, LLC

Is Safeway safe?

It collects a lot of your data, and shares it with trackers.

Our take. Safeway carries 5 third-party trackers and its own label declares it links 2 categories of your data to you. It collects a lot itself, and shares a lot with outside companies.

Privacy footprint · vs 80 shoppingModerate

Trackers from other companies5 · some

typical shopping: 5

Data the app links to you2 types · some

typical shopping: 8 · from its own privacy label

What it collects about you

Safeway links 2 categories of your data to you.

From the developer's own App Store privacy label. These are the kinds of data Safeway ties to your identity, and it also declares it shares data to track you across other apps.

Contact InfoDiagnostics

Who else is inside

It carries trackers from 2 companies.

Third-party SDKs found in the app, matched to the company that publishes each. Present in the code; we do not observe what they transmit.

🏢Other third partiesadvertising

A third-party SDK.

SDKs

🇺🇸GoogleAnalytics

Firebase, AdMob and Google analytics SDKs, built to record how you use the app and serve ads.

SDK

How it compares

Where it sits among shopping.

Every one of these apps we have scanned, on the two measures above: third-party trackers it carries (across) and data it links to you on its own label (up). Toward the top right is more invasive.

Each dot is one shopping app. Safeway sits to the right, carrying more third-party tracking than most.

Other signals

One more flag.

Each is a fact read straight from the app. The same checks run on every app we scan. Only the ones that apply here are shown.

It declares cross-app tracking

Its own App Store label says it tracks you across other companies apps and websites using your advertising identifier.

The evidence

What it's built from.

All 34 SDKs in the app, grouped by what they are for. 5 are third-party trackers.

1advertising

4analytics

29standard libraries

5 of the 34 are third-party trackers. The rest are the app's own code and standard open-source building blocks.

Show the full SDK list

Other third partiesadvertising

Snap Kit · Salesforce Marketing Cloud · Medallia Digital · Salesforce Marketing Cloud SDK

GoogleAnalytics · USA

Google Data Transport

Standard libraries29 · on-device

The app's own code plus open-source interface, storage and networking libraries.

How we know this

Counterspy downloads the app from the App Store and statically analyzes its compiled binary. Embedded SDKs are matched against a signature database and resolved to the company that operates each. We also read the developer's App Store privacy label, which lists the data the app says it collects and links to you. We do not run the app or intercept its traffic, so we report capabilities present in the code and the developer's own disclosures, not proven transmission. We assess privacy and data collection, not malware, security flaws, or developer intent. Reports are automated and never edited for payment. Scan v2026.8.0, 2026-04-04.

Third-party trackers are advertising, analytics and attribution SDKs detected by static signature matching. Presence shows a capability is compiled in, not that it ran or transmitted data.
"Data the app links to you" is the count of data categories the developer declares as Data Linked To You in its App Store privacy label. Labels are self-reported and not verified by Apple.
Comparison across the 80 shopping in our corpus. Trackers: median 5. Data linked to you: median 8.