Fakespot extension for detecting fake shopping reviews – Is it tracking you?

I heard about this app and extension service because it was pulled from the Apple Store because Amazon issued a takedown notice for something that is wrapping around their website and potentially exposing your data etc. So it got me interested as yes that is essentially what any extension or app can do, so nothing really unusual.

Well, what I noticed was this:
1. Fakespot’s website no longer seems to have a ‘paste URL’ to search. That is how I would have wanted to use it as I’d then know there is no browser extension watching every movement I make 24/7.
2. On their website, my tracker blocking shows some usual ad server sites (not unusual if you want to display adverts there), as well as Connect Facebook, TikTok Analytics (really?), and Google Tag Manager.
3. So I went to look at what the privacy policy is and what is stated for the Google Chrome extension, and it says for ‘User activity: For example: network monitoring, clicks, mouse position, scroll, or keystroke logging’; and for ‘Authentication Information: For example: passwords, credentials, security question, or personal identification number (PIN)’. Again, potentially any extension ‘could’ access this info, but why would they need to? It also states: ‘Not being sold to third parties, outside of the approved use cases’.
4. On their privacy policy page: ‘Please note that we do not alter our Service’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser’ and ‘Market our products and services to others’.

Maybe I’m just getting too cynical, but why can’t it just do a plain URL lookup on the page without gathering so much other data? I mean, you’d be interested in such detailed shopping browsing apart from Facebook?

See Fakespot

#technology #privacy #tracking #adverts #fakereviews

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Thank you for using Fakespot. Our mission is to bring transparency and trust back to the Internet. As part of that mission, we believe it is important to be open and clear with our users on what personal information we collect and how we use it. To be clear, we do not sell any user’s personal information. We may share your personal information…