We all want to protect our personal data from companies that we don’t want to have it.
Well, there’s an App for that.
Consumer Reports has launched Permission Slip.
Download and install it, create an account with an email address and phone number, and it will provide a list of hundreds of companies.
Select one of the companies and Consumer Reports will give what type of information it collects and options for what users can tell it to do.
If users have an account with one of the companies, direct the app to send a message on their behalf to it requesting “Do Not Sell My Data” or to “Delete My Account.” Then move on to the next card/company/data broker.
“It’s extremely easy to use and it exists to help consumers exercise their rights to privacy and take back control of their personal data,” Ginny Fahs, director of product R&D at Consumer Reports’ Innovation Lab, told WTOP.
Fahs led the team who developed the app.
“If it’s a company that you regularly do business with then it could be to your advantage to have that company keep your data to not take action at all.” Fahs said.
In a world where there is a trillion-dollar commercial surveillance industry, whether its brick-and mortar retailers, device manufacturers, websites, browsers, search engines, or software companies, these entities constantly find information about a consumer’s private life to track information.
With the help of data brokers that are largely unregulated and often not required to disclose what they’ve collected or shared, a consumer’s online life is generated and sold or traded by thousands of companies. Now, consider the consequences if company databases have been breached and cybercriminals infiltrate the system,according to Washington Consumers Checkbook.
“If it’s a company that you regularly do business with, then it could be to your advantage to have that company keep your data to not take action at all,” Fahs said. “A lot of states are starting to pass new privacy laws that give consumers a right to the data companies are collecting on us.”
