Would you like to find out what retailers know about you?
I am intrigued. I get so many targeted online ads and unsolicited mail that always seem so eerily knowledgeable about me. I often wonder if there is a little spy hiding away in my home knowing everything that I do?
Do you ever feel like this?
How do we find out what retailers know about us then and what can we do about it if it feels inappropriate and invasive and causes us concern?
Find out what retailers know about you
Rightly is a free service whose mission is to make data fairer, for everyone.
How do they do this?
Well, they do this by helping consumers understand their personal data and take back control of their digital selves.
This is exactly what I have been looking for.
Through their platform, you are able to talk to companies to ask what they know about you, tell them to delete or keep your information and manage your responses all in one place.
Why You Should Use Rightly
By using Rightly, you can find out many useful pieces of information such as finding out why you were rejected for a mortgage, seeing your credit files for free or seeing if your debt can be voided.
Such an empowering service and so useful.
It puts you back in control.
It is all quite shocking
A recent report by Rightly revealed the following:
- How everything from casual browsing to questions you ask Alexa can be compiled by Amazon and shared with a huge range of advertisers, social media networks and more.
- How Next, ASDA and Tesco use CCTV footage to change & adapt their stores for shoppers and share data with ‘consumer profiling organisations’ (Next), logs your average spend (ASDA) and obtains data from ‘specialist data providers’ (Tesco).
- Marks and Spencer collects personal data from ‘publicly available’ sources like Twitter or Facebook.
- Personal data like clothing size and skin type is used by John Lewis, like many other retailers, to build a profile of you (and trade it).
- That eBay sells as well as ‘shares’ its extensive consumer data profiles.
- The wide range of personal data, from passport details to criminal records that Argos
- How ASOS not only stores a range of data about its users but uses social media to check out your likes and how you influence others.
- How Currys builds a data profile from financial data from its ‘partner companies’.
If you’d like to know more, you can find out what retailers know about you here
Did you know any of this?
And did you know that none of it is illegal.
Whilst it all makes me rather uncomfortable, I think it is important to be aware of what these companies are doing with our information and to know that platforms such as Rightly exist so you can take control back of your data
Taking back control
If you are interested in reading more about this, do check out the Rightly website and let me know how you get on!