You can now opt out of having your Samsung Pay data sold

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In the internet age, privacy is a big topic. How much privacy we should have, how to keep our data private, how should companies be able to take and sell our data? It’s all very important to talk about and have control over. Companies are just now starting to give us more control over what data we allow for them to take and sell. Samsung is late to this trend but is finally allowing users to stop Samsung Pay from selling their data.

In the latest Samsung Pay update in the United States, I noticed a pop-up on the main screen of Samsung Pay asking me to review my privacy settings. This was interesting because I’ve never actually seen any privacy settings in Samsung Pay, even though I’ve used it since the Galaxy S8 almost 3 years ago. This pop-up leads to a new Privacy Controls setting in Samsung Pay. These settings allow you to control your data and flip the “Do Not Sell” switch to stop Samsung from selling this data to “Samsung Pay partners.”

I am a long-time Samsung Pay user and I was honestly shocked to see Samsung was selling my Samsung Pay data. Companies like Google are pretty open about the amount of data they track and sell and how they sell it. Samsung isn’t as open about the amount of data they track or sell. The reason Samsung added this “Do Not Sell” is because of the CCPA, or the “California Consumer Privacy Act.” According to Samsung’s privacy page about the CCPA, the act gives California residents three basic rights. These rights are access to your personal information, deletion of your personal information, and the ability to stop Samsung, or other companies, from selling your personal information.

Samsung and other companies are not required to approve these requests or even show the options to residents outside the state of California. I’m not a resident of California and still have the settings, so it seems like Samsung might be allowing anyone in the United States access to stop their data from being sold. This leaves the downside of losing some personalized features, but if you’re concerned about privacy, this is a great option.