![]() ![]() Other companies named in EFF’s report did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Per the company’s user data policy, Branch collects device data like advertising identifiers, IP address, and cookies but does not collect or store information such as names, emails or physical addresses. “To perform this service for Ring and many others, we must process some data from within the app but take extreme care when handling it,” Austin said in an email. Goldman said it’s unclear why Branch or Facebook would need information from Ring to help with analytics or targeting ads.īranch spokesperson Alex Austin said the company provides a service that fixes mobile links that take users to the correct page. But he said Ring’s privacy policy is too broad and vague and it’s concerning that even the company’s list of third-party services is not accurate. Generally the company may collect and disclose personal information - such as when users interact with the app or their Ring devices - to third-party services in order to track the performance of various features, the company said.īudington noted that Ring may not necessarily be in violation of its own privacy policy. Ring said it uses MixPanel to target messaging within the app when it launches new features. “Ring ensures that service providers’ use of the data provided is contractually limited to appropriate purposes such as performing these services on our behalf and not for other purposes.” “Like many companies, Ring uses third-party service providers to evaluate the use of our mobile app, which helps us improve features, optimize the customer experience, and evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing,” a Ring spokesperson said in a statement. The more information collected, the better a company can put together a picture of what you’re doing in your digital life. “We have all probably configured our apps differently.”īringing together some of the data Ring provides could show, hypothetically, that you opened a game, or that you joined a Wi-Fi hotspot in your home, Budington said. “For example, if you can see all the apps on a person’s device, that alone might be unique to everyone else in the universe,” Goldman said. It doesn’t take much to fingerprint a device, said Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University School of Law professor who co-directs the school’s High Tech Law Institute. A tracking company can stitch together and create a fingerprint of your device - a cohesive whole about what your device looks like.” “It’s concerning because of the level of detail and insight into your device’s characteristics. ![]() “Just having the information on what sensors your phone has is quite in-depth,” the EFF’s Budington said. But only one of the third-party companies the EFF identified, Mixpanel, is named in Ring’s list of third-party analytics services.ĪppsFlyer, a mobile marketing analytics company, collects information on user actions within the Ring app and on calibration settings and sensors installed on the device. ![]()
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