PrivacyGuard: Consumer Report's New App Receives Mixed Reviews.

Who can we trust if not a well-known, respected group that has fought for consumer rights since 1936?

That’s what I’m thinking as I read through the comments that are nasty about Consumer Reports’ new book, Permission Slip by CR.

The public could get the free app earlier this month. It lets people see how much personal information businesses collect and then takes action to limit it.

The mission of Consumer Reports Innovation Lab is to make people aware of how and why every app and service collects data and then give them the tools they need to use their new rights to opt out. This is what Ben Moskowitz, vice president of the lab, tells me over the phone.

I really like it. It’s a big first step to teach people about the kinds of data that businesses regularly gather, share, and sell to make money. It also gives us a good way to demand that businesses treat us better and gives us the power to start controlling how they handle our personal digital data. It’s also free.

But private online is hard to manage. Rolling out new apps is also. A mix of the two will make people worry about how much of your private information an app needs to, well, keep you private.

Is the Permission Slip app real?

In the Play Store and the App Store, Permission Slip by CR only gets two stars. When I read such bad reviews, I wasn’t sure if I should download it.

Also, a quick search online turns up a few Reddit posts and online groups that criticize Permission Slips’ privacy policy and say it’s really just a cover for data mining.

Anon on a YCombinator Hacker thread says, “Not only do they use all the usual nasty e-stalking tricks, but they also share aggregated data with other companies.” The entire process is a form of data mining meant to connect and identify the accounts and gadgets of people who are getting harder to track in other ways.

Gulp. As I learn more about this app, I wonder if that’s true. Consumer Reports made a mistake with this one.

Why is it so hard to keep your online information safe?

As part of its job to protect your privacy, Permission Slip needs to gather information, which some see as a privacy risk.

In the end?

Chris Hoofnagle, a law professor and faculty head for the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, says, “A very reliable group has set up a way for people to control their data.” “Permission Slip needs to gather information in order to scale and be useful to the average consumer.” The process needs everyone to trust each other.

Why do so few people rate Permission Slip in the app store?

When Permission Slip by CR first came out in early October, a lot of people tried to use it right away. This caused the app to crash and have some major problems.

I waited a week to give it a try after seeing that happen, and it has been five stars all the way through. It was in beta testing before it was released to the public, and many of the comments show bugs that didn’t exist at the time but do now.

Does the Permission Slip app handle data in a “dicey” way?

I read the app’s 14-page Privacy Policy, and yes, there is dumb legalese that makes me want to punch someone in the shins. As an example? “We do not sell your personal information in a way that most people would think of as a sale.” This is a big red flag that many people who don’t like the app point out. We do, however, use focused online ads and analytics, which lets tech companies use user information from our app to make their own goods and the services they offer better in return for us using their services. In some states, this is the same thing as “selling” your user data to a third party. You can choose not to do this by following the steps in the “How to Submit a Request” part below.

They keep your personal information safe most of the time, but sometimes they don’t?

Not really.

The app will ask you to prove your email address and phone number before you can use the service. This information helps the app, which is your “authorized agent,” ask for privacy on your behalf.

Consumer Reports uses California’s privacy rules, which make it very hard for companies to do anything with this information, even though the app is available all over the country.

According to CR, it shares some general information about how people use the app with partners for specific reasons. For example, to make changes to the app and to promote it on social media sites, partners need to know how people use the app. CR doesn’t let ads show up on its own sites.

CR said that this wording is needed because of how the Colorado privacy law describes a “sale” of data when asked for their opinion on this part of the privacy policy. CR gives people who don’t want to be a part of this kind of sharing a way to stop it.

Still, that might make some people feel bad, especially “committed privacy people,” Hoofnagle said.

“These people will say something like, ‘There should be free, open-source software that you can compile on your own computer (GNU/Linux, of course) and use Tor to send these requests.'””That most likely won’t work for most of the rest of us.”

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Can we really get our freedom back?

Everyone, including marketers, data traders, and scams, can use everything we do online and in real life to figure out who we are and what we like. This makes us easy targets for all of them.

Of course, it can cost a lot of money and time to get rid of your information from all the different sites that store and search for it. But that’s really like trying to clean up glitter when it’s windy outside.

We can finally get back a little of our privacy online thanks to new rules. It’s still very hard to deal with how much work it is to ask each company to delete or stop selling your information.

So far, my Permission Slip app has given me:

It sent 55 emails to CVS, Lowes, Airbnb, OpenTable, Yahoo, and even sketchy data brokers like Spokeo, asking them not to sell my personal information, such as my email address, home address, and location data. It did this in 10 minutes. That alone saved me about 70 hours compared to doing everything myself.

CVS is the only company that has turned down my request not to sell my information so far. The cause? The state where I live, Washington, does not have a rule about internet privacy.

At the moment, 13 states have laws that protect the privacy rights of customers. When it comes to protecting customer privacy, California is the best in the country and Idaho is the worst.

Many trustworthy businesses will still follow your data privacy requests, even if your state doesn’t require them to. This is especially true if Consumer Reports is behind the request. It looks like CVS didn’t get the message.

Would you like me to use the Permission Slip app?

Even though it’s not perfect, it’s a great tool. Nothing is perfect at first. Allow Slip is a good beginning, though. Because you have more power over your privacy, you can change your digital record more. A data leak is also less likely to affect you if companies don’t have a lot of information about you.

“Data rights can be hard to understand and take a lot of time.” “We want people to easily be able to use their privacy rights,” Fahs says. “We think that everyone should be able to get privacy.” By sharing your data with companies, you can get back some control in a market where every click is carefully tracked. You can better decide what information is out there about you and how it can be used.