Here are just some of the things data collectors want to know about users of the most popular real estate apps, according to privacy expert John Gilmore.
Who’s moving? where? why? how old are they? How many times have they bought a home? Is it by themselves or a family? where do they work? How much do they spend on credit cards each month? Who are their contacts? Do they have pets?
“They want to know everything,” says Gilmore, research director at DeleteMe, a subscription service that removes personal information from search engine results.
Gilmore said all apps are data-hungry, but apps in the real estate industry are “very hungry” for as much data as they can get from users.
Gilmore said the app collects information differently than traditional web browsers.
A user on a computer reaches some limit, but when that user accesses an app on a phone or tablet, it all goes to waste.
Gilmore said that even if a user installs an app and abandons it after five minutes, it will continue to track them as they scroll through websites, send and receive emails, and buy things with Apple Pay, giving advertisers access to the app. It is said that you can build a profile that allows you to sell.
“The main reason a mobile app exists is whether it’s a game, something that provides information like WebMD, or a fitness application, it doesn’t matter what it is. It’s a collection tool,” he says. He added that free apps tend to be more aggressive than paid apps. “Free apps are 100% designed for you to be the product and to constantly collect data.”
“When I say extremely, I mean far beyond your expectations,” he says.
Browsing business
Landlord GO is a mobile game where users buy, sell, and renovate buildings. Advertisers target players of this and other real estate mobile games when they want to learn more about a specific demographic, Gilmore said. Virtual real estate moguls are older and wealthier than the typical mobile gamer, a valuable demographic, so they are likely to have more valuable data.
“It’s unlikely that a 10-year-old would play a game of upending the landlord,” he says.
But more invasive data collection is coming from much larger real estate companies such as Zillow, Redfin and CoStar, Guimour said.
Real estate apps in particular are very aggressive in looking up your contacts. Because we want to know who else users know, where they live, and even where they work, he said. If 80% of your friends work in finance in New York, he said, your data analysis tools might be programmed to: Let’s sell him a place in Boca. ”
This is because people buy and sell only one or two homes in their lifetime, and many parties, from agents to insurance companies to developers to cable and internet providers, are all working on the same transaction. This is especially noticeable because the
After looking into the privacy policies of some of the big real estate apps, Gilmore said the companies are similarly bad at collecting user data. Based on what data buyers want to see, they likely use similar third-party data collection tools, he said.
The co-stars and Zillow did not respond to requests for comment.
“Our primary purpose in collecting data from our customers is to enable us to provide Redfin products and services to our customers,” Redfin said in a statement. We also provide you with more relevant and personalized content, including ads, on Redfin.com based on your interests. The company also says it takes “privacy seriously” and has published a privacy policy that includes information about what data it collects and how to opt out of Internet-based advertising, Google Analytics, cookies, and mobile device ID tracking. Guided the user.
In recent years, mobile device IDs have become more important than Social Security numbers when it comes to tracking identities, Gilmore said. Device identifiers are “essentially your fingerprints,” he said, tracking you as you move around the world, knowing where you work and how often you go to the drug store or eat out.
“Your phone number and device identifier can tell you even more than your Social Security number,” he said.
Gilmore said phone manufacturers have started to get more serious about privacy in recent years, but disclosures that apps collect information such as “content,” “financial information,” “contact information,” and “location information” are It is said to be intentionally vague to “put people at ease.”
For example, “content” means reading your email.
“It’s not a realistic depiction of what’s actually happening,” he says.
The “nominal rules” for collecting location data are changing relatively rapidly, primarily after the repeal of Roe v. Wade, when data could be used to track women seeking abortions. Gilmore said in response to the realization that there is. However, it will take some time for these changes to be reflected in the real world, and enforcement will be the biggest driver.
He noted that two of the largest location data brokers are currently facing punitive damages from the Federal Trade Commission.
“That means everyone else in the business is thinking, ‘Okay, we need to find a new business model,'” he says.
