Danish Consumer Council’s hidden-camera video aims to highlight the need for smartphone apps to respect their users’ privacy

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

How would you feel if your local bakery started demanding to see your last five text messages or the phone numbers of your friends before selling you a loaf of bread?

Pretty startled, if the fear and loafing loathing exhibited by Danish shoppers in a hidden-camera video produced by the Danish Consumer Council is anything to go by.

The consumer rights body wanted to raise awareness of the kind of permissions that smartphone apps routinely request, even if it’s not clear why they are needed.

If Your Shop Assistant was an App showed what happened when a bakery assistant asked for similar permissions, including access to people’s text message history and details of their past movements.

According to president Anja Philip, the video should make people think twice before sharing certain personal information with apps, if they are not sure how that data will be used.

“They are for instance allowed to view your calendar and text messages, use your photos and see your location. Something that you would never accept in the physical world,” said Philip.

“Companies should not collect more information about consumers than is strictly necessary. Instead we would like to encourage them to start competing to provide consumers with proper digital privacy protection.

“This would enable consumers to choose services from companies that are concerned about protecting their privacy. This choice is largely absent today.”

The topic of apps and privacy made headlines in 2014, for example when security company SnoopWall discovered that a range of popular Android torch apps were overreaching on permissions including the ability to delete other apps, track location and view call details.

The developer of one app, which had been installed more than 50 million times, was taken to task by the Federal Trade Commission in the US for not disclosing enough information to smartphone owners about its data usage.

In September 2014, a report by the pan-governmental Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN) studied 1,200 apps and found that 85% were failing to adequately disclose how they were collecting, using and sharing personal information.

• Information Commissioner’s Office releases app privacy guidelines

