I think a lot of us are guilty of signing up to new apps, new shops, new initiatives on a daily basis. With great incentives that many of them offer such as money off when you subscribe to their newsletters or pre sale information, very often you find yourself signing up and not really reading and understanding what data you are allowing companies to access.
As I am getting older I am feeling increasingly more alarmed about how more personal data that is being collected especially as my daughter will soon be at an age when they will be leaving their own digital imprint. It makes me nervous that so many companies know not only basic information like my name, address, email and gender but also my hobbies, height, weight, employment type even what food I like to eat. In fact they know absolutely everything!!
Ever done a quick search for something on your phone only to spend the next being bombarded by it on other devices. It is no coincidence. Every shop you buy from, app that look at, online game that you play, programme that you watch, picture that you like, all these daily things that you do so easily without much thought is being monitored.
Rightly have produced data maps to show us exactly what brands know what and they discovered that retail sites collate the following information:
- Name
- Gender
- Age
- Sexual orientation
- Marital Status
- Race
- Religious Beliefs
- Live location
- Home address
- Employment status
- Job title
- Pet ownership
- Mobile number
- Landline number
- Type of phone/device
- Hobbies
- Interests
- Height
- Weight
- Next of kin
- Mother’s maiden name
- IP address
- Criminal record
- Bank account details
- Salary
- Marketing preference
- Allergies
- Health & lifestyle info
- Site usage
- recordings/footages.
It is mind blowing! In 2017, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) strengthened data protection laws in the UK giving individuals the right to ask any company for any personal data they hold, ask what it is used for, and request for it to be deleted. So if you are anything like me and receive daily emails from companies you really aren’t interested in (and can’t even remember signing up to) maybe it is time for a digital detox.
Rightly are on a mission to help consumers to easily understand, control and use their personal data, by finding out exactly who has access to it and what they’re doing with your data. Rightly can liaise with over 10,000 companies on your behalf for free to discover which brands have information on you. When this information has been obtained, Rightly can then help you to either update or delete it. This is something I definitely plan to do, it is so worrying to realise that so many brands and companies know so much about me. I think I need to think of having a digital clear out every few months in the same way I have a clothes clear out and spring clean.
Do you need a digital detox? #MappingMyData
This is a collaboration post.