Buying online? Those deals could come with a price in personal information


December 2, 2022

DC News Now

As millions of Americans flock online to find holiday deals on gifts, personal data is collected by companies.

While the data collection, where information can be sold to advertisers, the longstanding practice does not exclusively occur during the busiest shopping months of the year...

As consumers use phone apps in addition to retail websites to purchase goods, Dr. Susan Aaronson, a research professor of digital trade at George Washington University said, app store systems differ on data collection requirements levied on companies.

“The app is basically a tool to get people’s data, and a lot of times those apps, they may have one purpose but they talk all sorts of data unrelated to them,” Aaronson said, adding “the app that you’re using has to follow the Android system or IOS systems’ — Apple’s systems’ — rules in their app store.”

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