Consumer Tracking (2)

UFC-Que Choisir, the French consumer association we discussed in the first part of our article, has also sought to warn consumers with its “I am not data” (“je ne suis pas une data”) campaign.

It reminds people in particular of the right of access to and erasure of their data, and offers a number of tips on using the internet (caution on social networks and when browsing in general, strong passwords, alternative search engines…). However, we saw that the right of access and erasure exists, but that in practice it is hard to exercise because most sites are unwilling to cooperate.

A contract of trust that is not honoured

Consumers' fundamental rights rest on a contract of trust, which is currently not being honoured. Consumers should be informed clearly and precisely about the essential characteristics of the product or service they wish to acquire.

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• The general terms of sale should be easily accessible and understandable.
• Consumers should be able to choose which data they share and for how long that data remains available to the merchant
• Consumers must be able to withdraw within a sufficiently long legal period, without having to justify their decision.

At present, this is clearly not the model offered by merchant sites.

For now, sticking to cautious browsing remains the only solution. The principles most often recalled are the following:

• Check the merchant site's reputation: read customer reviews, make sure the company is properly listed in professional directories, check that all mandatory legal notices appear on the site, and so on.
• Read the site's general terms of sale and privacy policy carefully.
• Use a secure payment method (for example, a bank card with a strong authentication system).
• Avoid sharing your banking details by email or phone.
• Do not click on suspicious links received by email or instant messaging.
• Update your web browser and antivirus regularly.

However, reading the general terms of sale on every site remains extremely time-consuming, and even these measures are not enough to guarantee that our data is protected. Some people therefore go even further and completely change their tools, deleting all social networks and the most popular browsers such as Google – one of the biggest data collectors.

Technical solutions that are partial and burdensome for the user

Without going that far, some more accessible tools exist.

• Using a virtual private network (VPN) creates a secure, encrypted “tunnel” that guarantees the security and privacy of the connection by hiding IP addresses.
• The Tor browser (The Onion Router) provides near-total anonymity. A network of encrypted layers conceals the user's origin.
• Some specific search engines, such as DuckDuckGo, pledge not to collect any data themselves. But of course, even if the search engine doesn't, as soon as you leave it to visit a site, that site won't have the same policy.

However, these methods require somewhat more advanced use of internet tools than the average user has, or expense (buying a VPN subscription). Having to pay to protect your privacy may seem, rightly, excessive…

For now, the problem therefore seems unsolvable. Companies want our data, and we are not prepared to give up our everyday use of the web. We can only hope that the authorities will bring in stricter regulations on data collection; the European Union is probably the most advanced in this area.

Join us in April for our theme on deepfakes. In the meantime, if you have a film, a series, software or an ebook to protect, don't hesitate to call on our services by contacting one of our account managers; PDN has been a pioneer in cybersecurity and anti-piracy for more than ten years, and we are bound to have a solution to help you. Happy reading, and see you soon!

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