“…we regularly give away our data, and some of our privacy in return for digital services. Sometimes it’s a fair value exchange, but all too often it is not.”
Worse, sometimes we DO pay for digital services and there is STILL significant information gathering going on. For instance, I use the Oura Ring sleep/health tracker. While their FAQ assures that “We understand that data does not get much more personal than this, and the protection of your personal data is of paramount importance to us.”, they don’t reveal that their app — which costs $6/month to get access to your full results — also includes (according to my DuckDuckGo privacy phone app) trackers from Google, Functional Software, and Twilio Segment, which advertises to its clients that it gives them a “Complete view of the customer.”
The astounding part: in the past 7 days alone, and just on my phone, the DDG app reports it has blocked 12,785 tracking attempts by the Oura app across those three tracking companies. The app gives some surprising insight into the data collection activities, such that it notes that in the past 7 days it has blocked an astounding 212,438 tracking attempts from 26 apps on my phone.
And yes, I know that “tracking” doesn’t always equal “privacy violation.”
*(Full disclosure: since I’ve been using the Oura Ring as long as I have been, they grandfathered my “membership” to be no cost for life.)
You Can’t Be Happy - 7 Takeaways No. 144
“…we regularly give away our data, and some of our privacy in return for digital services. Sometimes it’s a fair value exchange, but all too often it is not.”
Worse, sometimes we DO pay for digital services and there is STILL significant information gathering going on. For instance, I use the Oura Ring sleep/health tracker. While their FAQ assures that “We understand that data does not get much more personal than this, and the protection of your personal data is of paramount importance to us.”, they don’t reveal that their app — which costs $6/month to get access to your full results — also includes (according to my DuckDuckGo privacy phone app) trackers from Google, Functional Software, and Twilio Segment, which advertises to its clients that it gives them a “Complete view of the customer.”
The astounding part: in the past 7 days alone, and just on my phone, the DDG app reports it has blocked 12,785 tracking attempts by the Oura app across those three tracking companies. The app gives some surprising insight into the data collection activities, such that it notes that in the past 7 days it has blocked an astounding 212,438 tracking attempts from 26 apps on my phone.
And yes, I know that “tracking” doesn’t always equal “privacy violation.”
*(Full disclosure: since I’ve been using the Oura Ring as long as I have been, they grandfathered my “membership” to be no cost for life.)