CHAPTER 8: COMPARISONS – PRIVATE SECTOR ACTIVITY
themselves. There are justified concerns that the consent given to data-sharing is
poorly informed; that the choice given to the customer is limited or unreal; that our
desire to use the services freely offered, or to obtain the benefits gained in exchange
for our information, is exploited in ways that we cannot necessarily envisage; and that
anonymised data, when analysed, can reveal the identity of individuals with a very
high degree of certainty.
Commercial use of web logs and location data
8.97.
The debate surrounding the collection of communications data centres around web
logs/urls and location data. It is useful to compare how these categories of data are
treated by private companies.
IP address/location data
8.98.
Privacy policies often state that the use of websites may convey information about
location. This can be seen in Google’s privacy policy, which makes clear that Google
may use IP addresses, mobile devices, search queries and information from other
websites to determine location;46 Facebook’s Data Policy, which uses “device
locations, including specific geographic locations, such as through GPS, Bluetooth or
WiFi” and IP addresses;47 and Amazon, which automatically collects and analyses
IP addresses.48 When use is made of Twitter services, Twitter may receive “log data”
which includes the user’s IP address and location. Twitter will either remove or delete
the full IP address after 18 months.49
Web logs/urls
8.99.
Google records page requests made, including the requested url;50 and Facebook
makes clear that it collects information “when you visit third party sites and apps that
use our services (like when they offer our Like button or Facebook Log In or use our
measurement and advertising services). This includes information about the
websites and apps you visit”.51 Amazon collects and analyses the full url.52 Using
Twitter services may mean details of web pages are received by Twitter.
46
See its Privacy & Terms website: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/.
See: https://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy.
According to its website, see:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=502584#GUID-76787A77-872C4019-8BD7-03C8AC3812EB__SECTION_22160257376047E78334D565CD73852D.
See Twitter’s Privacy Policy: https://twitter.com/privacy?lang=en
See https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/key-terms/#toc-terms-server-logs.
See https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.
As explained at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=502584#GUID76787A77-872C-4019-8BD7-03C8AC3812EB__SECTION_22160257376047E78334D565CD73852D.
47
48
49
50
51
52
162