How to defend your digital footprint in one tap with free ‘Permission Slip’ app

Wherever you go, there you are — but it doesn’t have to be that way on the internet.

A new app will help consumers protect their personal data from being bought and sold by dozens of major companies.

Powered by the nonprofit Consumer Reports, Permission Slip will put control back in the hands of its users by acting as a liaison between the companies and consumers, ensuring their user data is erased and not sold to third parties.

“People need and deserve control over the sensitive details of their lives, particularly in a market where every click and purchase is carefully tracked,” Ginny Fahs, the director of product R&D at Consumer Reports’ Innovation Lab, said in a statement.

The best part? It’s totally free.

Historically, requests for data to deleted or not sold has been cumbersome and often required filing opt-out forms individually or subscribing to a data deletion service, such as DeleteMe, which charge a yearly fee.

But Permission Slip, acting as an “authorized agent,” allows consumers to manage who has their data and if they’d like to request it not be sold or delete their accounts entirely with the simple tap of a button.

The app — inspired in part by a cascade of data privacy laws enacted after the landmark California Consumer Privacy Act in 2020 — also provides request status updates and a confirmation when they have been fulfilled by the companies, which will occasionally ask for verification from the consumer directly.

But the results aren’t instant. According to the Washington Post, companies typically take up to 45 business days to delete data and 15 business days to fulfill a request to stop selling it.

“The more data you have out there, the more attack surface there is for security breaches and for data to leak. So having good data hygiene is really helpful for preventing future harm,” Fahs told the Washington Post.

Personal data is most commonly used in the creepy targeted ads that choke your Facebook feed, but can be abused by cybercriminals to breach your online accounts.

Companies can collect data regarding demographic information — such as age, location, gender — as well as how their site is used or user behavior in order to improve marketing or the site experience.

Google, for example, tracks user’s online activity for the sake of personalized advertisements. Meanwhile, updated privacy policies for X, formerly Twitter, now permits the platform’s gathering of “biometrics information” and employment history.

But personal data, which can also include phone numbers or email addresses, could be sold to data brokers, of which there are upwards of 4,000. The data brokers then compile and package the information to sell to other companies for advertising purposes.

Permission Slip’s secondary feature also allows users to request their data be deleted by brokers.

“What we’re hoping to do is provide a little bit of education on the sorts of data that different companies collect and then help consumers reason with how they want to manage their data,” Fahs said.

During a trial period ahead of its official launch, Permission Slip processed 200,000 requests, the Washington Post reported.

In addition to data deletion services — Permission Slip or otherwise — there are other steps users can take to protect their digital privacy, such as restricting apps’ privacy settings, utilizing an anti-tracking browser, using a VPN, not connecting to public WiFi and blocking cookies.