How to take back control of your online data profile
IS Alexa listening in to your private conversations? What if Siri is gossiping about you to other people? Are your website searches revealing too much?
From smart speakers to portable tech like phones and watches, we’re surrounded by technology, and businesses everywhere are building a ‘digital profile’ of us every time we search online, shop or show interest in social media posts.
The good news is the law says you are allowed to find out what they are doing with the digital you, but most people don’t know how to get started – or how to get help if they’re unhappy with how their personal data is being used.
SHOPPING AND YOUR DATA
LOCKDOWN restrictions have forced millions of us online for everything from groceries to gifts and more than 300,000 people complained about shops through Resolver in 2020 alone.
And 12,000 people got in touch during Christmas week! But this is barely scratching the service of the millions of online purchases made every day.
Yet behind the scenes, online retailers collect data each time we shop, search or browse.
So I asked data protection experts, Rightly, to find what data retailers store, what they do with it and how you can take control of your data.
And the results were a shock. Checking the websites and policies of just a few major retailers, we found:
The questions you ask smart speakers and online assistants can be compiled by and shared with advertisers, social media networks and more.
Major retailers use CCTV footage to change and adapt stores, log your average spend, and share data among themselves and with consumer profiling organisations.
Many retailers trawl social media sites to collect personal data from ‘publicly available’ sources like Twitter or Facebook.
Personal data like clothing size and skin type is also saved and shared with other retailers, to build a profile of you.
■ Some businesses even sell their extensive consumer data profiles for profit.
■ A wide range of unrelated personal data, from passport details to criminal records were obtained by some shops.
■ We are all ‘influencers’ now, though without the fabulous freebies. Many stores monitor your social media to check likes and how you influence others. Read the full report at: rightly. co.uk/blog/how-do-online-retailersuse-my-data/
While many companies have faced fines for proven data misuse, none of the things we found were specifically illegal.
Most people don’t know what information businesses hold on them, or that you have the legal right to find out, challenge and remove part of or all profiles.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
ALL businesses (and many official organisations, charities and more) do this ‘data mining’. But we’re allowed to fight back. Some data saving can be useful – on websites you use a lot, you may not want to keep adding the same information. Plus advertising and personal recommendations might show you things you actually need.
However, you’re legally entitled to ask what data businesses hold – and you can tell them to remove the bits you don’t want. We all need to be more careful about what information we give out, directly or indirectly.
Make sure you lock down your social media profiles – and think about what you post on ‘’open’ sites like Twitter or group forums. Regularly clear cookies – the electronic markers that allow businesses to store your data. Change and update passwords to avoid data leaks. And always be way of requests for personal information.
If you have a complaint about a business or organisation, Resolver can help for free: resolver.co.uk