Online Privacy - It's No Joke

My favorite New Yorker cartoon featured two dogs, one dog sitting at a computer talking to the another dog sitting on the ground. The caption “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” While this used to be true, it’s not true anymore.

Increasingly websites and mobile phone apps are collecting vast amounts of data from users and selling it to third party advertisers and data mining companies without the user’s knowledge. If you are a Words with Friends fan, you may be surprised to know what information Zynga, the maker of the popular app, collects. Per Zynga’s Privacy Policy, information Zynga collects is dependent on what kind of device you are using and if you login via a social network such as Facebook, but can contain: first and last name, picture, birthday, gender, email, location (they can track your movements if you permit) Facebook friends, webpages you have visited and in what order, amount of time spent on each webpage…. And the list goes on. According to Zynga’s privacy policy “We will share your information with third party companies to perform services on our behalf, like processing payments, analyzing data, optimizing game play, e-mail delivery, hosting services, customer service and to help us in our marketing efforts, including managing and delivering contextual and tailored advertisements.”

Yikes. Zynga has turned the consumer into a product. And they are not alone. Free web-based games and free mobile apps are more likely to collect and sell your personal information then paid apps. These websites and apps make money from providing advertising through the app and in some cases by collecting your personal information to sell.

App makers aren’t always completely upfront about what data they collect and share (even so, who reads the Terms and Conditions?). The data the apps can potentially access is our most personal – contacts, calendar, and pictures. Geolocation data shows where we live, where we work, and where we like to go. All this information is linked to the phones UDID (Unique Device Identifier—the equivalent of your phone’s serial number).

Fortunately for iPhone/iPad users there is an easy way to limit the data that apps can access. Just click Settings-> Privacy. You will see Location Services, Contacts etc listed. Tap Contacts to see what apps have access to your contacts. Do this for each category under Privacy. Here is a good tutorial: http://ipod.about.com/od/UsingiOS6/ss/Using-Iphone-Privacy-Settings-In-Ios.htm

For Android 4.3 users there a utility called App Ops that will allow you to adjust app permissions. Unfortunately Google removed this feature in later releases.
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Web resources:

Carnegie Mellon researchers developed a privacy grading system for Android apps based on their privacy-related behaviors. http://privacygrade.org/home

Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices

Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out program:
http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

Have more questions about online privacy and what you can do to protect yourself? Contact Digital Handyman today!