VIDEO: Why digital app T&Cs fail in the real world

CI Member the Danish Consumer Council has launched a new campaign film - ‘If your shop assistant was an app’ – to highlight the insufficient level of digital privacy currently available to consumers in Denmark. 

 

The video, with English subtitles, uses hidden camera footage in a bakery to show how consumers react if physical shops asked for the same permissions as apps.

Consumers are increasingly relinquishing their privacy through apps that demand access to their personal data including: location, contacts and text messages.

 “Some of the most popular apps….require that consumers give the company behind the app permission to access their personal data” says Anja Philip, President of the Danish Consumer Council.

“They are, for instance, allowed to view your calendar and text messages, use your photos and see your location. Something that you would never accept in the physical world.”

“Companies should not collect more information about consumers than is strictly necessary. Instead we would like to encourage them to start competing to provide consumers with proper digital privacy protection.”

The lack of digital privacy is a challenge that consumers face worldwide. The campaign aims to make policy makers support the EU Data Protection Regulation, whilst also encouraging companies to develop privacy-friendly services.

Consumers International continues to support the development of new tools and services that can empower consumers to take control of their data. Through our ‘Project Consumer Data Protection with Emerging Economies’ we are part of a high-level dialogue, relating to the data protection of more than a third of internet uses worldwide.

See Consumers International Director General Amanda Long’s blog on digital privacy: Tick, click and hope for the best.