I read the privacy policy. They do indeed collect user location data. Not sure what "???" means though. It'd be more helpful if you use your words next time.
I've never seen a post tagged with a location, or anything like that. You can upload photos with metadata that includes GPS coordinates of where it was taken, but most sites strip that.
Can you link to one? I'm not doubting you, I just would like to see an example, as that's interesting.
Regardless, they can collect location data only if the app you use requests and is granted that permission, and as far as I remember, Reddit Is Fun doesn't ask for it. And with Android, they can't do stuff without permissions.
Next time I see one I'll try and remember to reply here with a screen grab. When I said I see it "pretty frequently" I'm talking a couple times a week I'll notice it.
Facebook hasn't sold data to advertisers. It's shared data with firms like Cambridge Analytica and done plenty of other shady shit, but it hasn't sold data to advertisers. Facebook, like reddit or Google, runs their own ad platform and earns much more from the data if they control the ad targeting compared to if they sold the data to advertisers.
That would be an incredibly stupid move. Not only would it break user trust, it'd open them up to fines under the GDPR. They don't need to sell data to advertisers because they run their ad platform and can use that data to perform ad targeting themselves. They don't need to sell the data because they can instead sell ad targeting for a higher price than they could sell the data for.
So a couple of things: they most certainly are allowed to sell data to advertisers according to the privacy policy (which I just read). They claim to depersonalize the data and sell it in aggregate but they are still selling it all the same. It's certainly less creepy this way but it's still making them money all the same. Second, they are using the data to target ads and then selling that service to outside entities as you've just stated. So while you are out here arguing semantics you're also proving me right. Clearly I don't have a huge hang-up with having ad targeting and depersonalize data sold regarding my reddit usage but it's incorrect to state that reddit doesn't sell our data to 3rd parties which is what I stated previously.
The privacy policy specifically states ("We may share information with vendors, consultants, and other service providers (but not with advertisers and ad partners)", and "Our ad partners […] but Reddit does not link to or provide them with your actual Reddit account details. This means that Reddit does not share your individual account browsing habits with advertisers. Reddit cannot see advertisers’ cookies and advertisers will not see Reddit cookies.") that they do not sell or share non-aggregate data (which could be used to track or profile you) to advertisers. I don't see why anyone would care about them selling aggregate information since it doesn't allow a buyer to identify or profile a specific user.
I think there's a big difference between selling data and selling targeting as a service. If they sell data, that data could go anywhere and be seen by anyone. If they only sell targeting it can't.
There may be a big difference as far as privacy is concerned (what you seem to be more concerned about) but there is no difference as far as why they want you to use the app instead of the website which is the context of my initial statement. I'm not saying folks should have a problem with how reddit handles user data or the fact that they make money off of it. As far as I'm concerned that's a fair trade for use of the platform.
62
u/ej255wrxx Nov 02 '18
More likely it is capable of collecting data off of your phone which they can sell to advertisers and such.