Here’s what the UK’s biggest retailers really do with your data

Ever wonder what you’re agreeing to when you agree to terms and conditions when shopping with the likes of Amazon, Asos, Zara and Nike?

Charged has teamed up with Rightly.co.uk to lay bare just how much these retailers know about you and what they do with your data once they have it.

Below we have listed everything a shopper has legally consented to share once they agree to a retailer’s terms and conditions.

 

Have we missed any retailers or data you’d love to know about? Let us know in the comments below or contact us here. 

Amazon

With 15 million Amazon Prime subscribers in the UK alone, the online retail giant has a staggering amount of customer data at its fingertips, including recordings of your voice when speaking to Alexa and your credit history.

It collects:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Location
  • Age
  • Voice recordings when you speak to Alexa
  • Credit history and information, (from other sources ‘for which we provide technical, fulfillment, advertising, or other services’)
  • Updated delivery and address information
  • Purchase info
  • Info about your interactions with their ‘subsidiaries’
  • Search results and links, including paid listings e.g. sponsored links
  • Info about internet-connected devices linked with Alexa
  • Credit history information from credit bureaus…to help prevent and detect fraud and to offer certain credit or financial services to some customers

It automatically collects:

  • What you buy and search on Amazon,
  • What you download/stream/view,
  • Interactions with Alexa
  • Any info you put on your profile
  • Your Amazon reviews,
  • Your wish lists and watch lists

Do they share your data for advertising purposes?

Yes. (They don’t sell your data, but they do share it)

“As we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy other businesses or services. In such transactions, customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets”.

Who with?

Advertisers, publishers, social media networks, search engines, ad serving companies, and advertising companies working on their behalf.

“We do not associate your interactions on unaffiliated sites with information which on its own identifies you, such as name or email address”.

Ebay

Unlike its larger rival Ebay collects relatively little data, but it does sell it on to third parties.

It collects:

  • When you use Ebay services
  • Make a new account
  • Provide info via a web form
  • Participate in online community discussions or otherwise interact with them

 It collects from other sources:

  • Other eBay Inc. corporate family members
  • Credit agencies or bureaus, and other data brokers.

Do they share your data for advertising purposes?

Yes. (They sell your data*)

“We also share your information with third parties…to provide customer service, to provide you with personalized advertising and marketing communications…”

*you can opt-out here https://www.ebay.com/adchoice/ccpa

Who with?

“Third parties’ and ‘eBay group companies”

Asos

While shoppers may expect the online retailer to collect its preferred styles and sizes, they may not know it also tracks how they share their choices on social media

It collects:

  • Dress size
  • Price range
  • Address
  • Order history
  • Search history
  • Styles you like
  • Social media accounts you link with Asos including “how you might share your likes with your friends and how you might influence others with your style.”

Do they share your data for advertising purposes?

Yes. (They don’t sell your data, but they do share it)

“We share your data with the following categories of companies as an essential part of being able to provide our services to you…”

Who with?

“Marketing agencies, advertising partners and website hosts, who help us run our business…Affiliates who help us reach out to potential new customers or promote our products on their websites…also provide third parties with aggregated and anonymised information and analytics about our customers. Before we do so, we will make sure that it does not identify you”. 

Zalando

Like Asos, Zalando collects not only your dress size but information from your linked social media accounts and which device you’re using.

It collects:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Order numbers
  • Brands and styles you’re interested in
  • If you connect with social media (sign in using Facebook) any public profile information,
  • From external advertising partners it collects age, gender, region

Collects automatically:

Info on which device you are using.

Do they share your data for advertising purposes?

Yes. (They don’t sell your data, but they do share it)

“We…use your data for personalised advertising presented to you in Zalando’s services and on other providers’ websites and apps.”

Who with?

“Advertising partners”. A helpful list of all the cookies they use shows Google, Facebook, Adobe, Bing, and Econda all use marketing cookies on Zalando for advertising purposes.

Boohoo

It collects:

  • Name
  • Occupation
  • Gender
  • Email address
  • Location
  • Social media if you log in using it
  • Payment details
  • Orders

Collects automatically:

  • How and when you use the site
  • Browser type and versio
  • Interests and preferences
  • Searches
  • Weblogs and other communication data

Do they share your data for advertising purposes?

Yes. (They don’t sell your data, but they do share it)

“We use a range of analytics and targeted advertising tools to display relevant website content on our website and online advertisements on other websites and apps”

Who with?
“Business partners…other third parties…to provide marketing and advertising services”

Missguided

It collects:

  • IP address
  • Cookie ID and browsing data
  • Email
  • Location
  • Payment details
  • Purchase history

Do they share your data for advertising purposes?

Yes. (They don’t sell your data, but they do share it)

“We will use this information to make the Sites and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose”.

Who with?

Struq, Google, Klarna amongst a list of other third party cookies.

“Please note that third parties…including, for example, advertising networks…may also use cookies, over which we have no control” …. so the third parties can also have third parties they share data with.

H&M 

As one of Europes largest fashion retailers H&M has access to swathes of data, but its notably the only retailer on the list which does not share shopper data for advertising purposes.

It collects:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Email
  • IP address
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Location
  • Interests

Do they share your data for advertising purposes?

No.

“We never pass on, sell or swap your data for marketing purposes to third parties outside the H&M group”

It will only share data within the H&M group, including “media agencies and technical suppliers for distribution of physical and digital direct marketing”.

Zara

It collects:

  • Name
  • Language and country
  • Email
  • Payment details
  • Info on your orders and returns
  • Browsing data
  • Tastes and preferences

Do they share your data for advertising purposes?

Yes. (They don’t sell your data, but they do share it)

“Some advertising and technology partners may also collect personal data when you use our Platform”. 

Who with?

“Advertising and marketing related partners and service providers”. 

Nike

As one of the world’s leading sports brands, Nike offers a range of fitness apps which all collect personal data on users including weight and fitness levels.

It collects:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Address
  • Gender
  • Hometown
  • Date of birth
  • Purchase history
  • Payment details
  • Weight, height, and body measurements (like estimated stride and shoe/foot measurements or apparel size)
  • Fitness activity data (provided by you or generated by the platform like time, duration, GPS, heart rate, distance, calorie count, pace)
  • Interests and preferences.

Do they share your data for advertising purposes?

Yes. (They don’t sell your data, but they do share it)

“Nike shares your personal data…for example [for] advertising”.

Who with?

“Service providers processing personal data for business purposes on Nike’s behalf”.

FeaturesAnalysis

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2 Comments. Leave new

  • This is really a non news story.

    Of course they collect and share data and if you think that is all above then you’re on a cloud sniffing petals.

    Reply
  • I want to reiterate the same point: why would they go to the trouble of sharing data if they got nothing out of it? Of course they “sell” your data. Believing differently seems a kind of denial how business works.

    Reply

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