Food For Thought: What Are The Top Five Food Apps Doing With Your Data?

Ordering a takeaway has never been so simple, and for many staying in is the new going out…With your favourite meal just one click away, it is easy to see why food delivery apps are hugely popular across the UK, and they are only getting bigger. But whilst we might be concerned about whether we over-ordered, we should be more worried about the how much our favourite delivery services really know about us. Rightly delved into five food delivery sites to see what information they hold on us as a customer, who they share it with and any previous data breaches they may have had.

Below shows the privacy policies from some of the UK’s most popular food apps:

“Remember, when we list the data a company collects on you this doesn’t necessarily mean the company shares all this data with advertisers, they may only share some of it.”

Deliveroo App: What Data do Deliveroo Collect?

Collects:

• Name, contact details, address, and age.
• Payment details.
• Health information e.g. food allergies (only if you consent).
• Recordings of your calls with Deliveroo.
• Messages and feedback, you post.
• Device type, connection type and IP.
• Through your ‘mobile’s browser’ or the deliveroo app, (unless you opt out) your interaction with other retail technology e.g. NFC Tags, QR codes and use of mobile vouchers.

Do Deliveroo share your data with third parties for advertising purposes?

Yes.

Deliveroo collects data about your browsing behaviour on their website and ‘other websites’ to ‘create profiles relating to you’ and show you ads that you’re more likely to respond to.

Who do Deliveroo Share Data With?

Their cookie policy says Deliveroo share your data with:

• Google
• Microsoft/Bing
• Facebook
• Snapchat
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• theTradeDeck
• Captify

Have they made any big data-related headlines?

In 2019- the BBC reported Deliveroo and Just Eat are working to combat fraud after customers reported their accounts were being used to buy food they didn’t order.

How Do Just Eat Use Your Data?

Collects:

• Name, address, payment details
• Reviews you publish and your feedback
• Buying habits
• Last page visited

Do Just Eat share your data with third parties for advertising purposes?

Yes.

Just Eat works with ‘advertising affiliates’ that serve you ads ‘personalised to your interests based upon your internet browsing activity:’

• Twitter
• GoogleAdwords
• Havas
• Vindico

Have they made any big data-related headlines?

In 2019- the BBC reported Deliveroo and Just Eat were working to combat fraud after customers reported their accounts were being used to buy food they didn’t order. In 2018, the Independent reported on how a delivery man for Just Eat used a customer’s number to send her unsolicited texts.

What Data Does the UberEats App Collect?

Collects:

• Name, profile picture and contact details
• Access dates and times
• Login name and password
• Features/pages on the app you view
• Location data (when you’re on the app or it’s running in the background) and demographic data
• Payment details

Do UberEats share your data with third parties for advertising purposes?

Yes. If you place an order on UberEats, they’ll ‘provide recommendations, promotions, or ads about similar food offered by other Uber partners.

Who do UberEats Share Your Data with?

UberEats say in their cookie policy that they share your data with:

• Google
• Facebook
• Adobe
• MediaMath
• Yahoo
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Outbrain
• Microsoft/Bing
• QuantCast
• Moat
• Liveramp
• Indeed

Have they made any big data-related headlines?

In 2018- the BBC revealed that hackers stole the data of 2.7 million UK customers. Uber paid the hackers £78,400 to destroy the data and didn’t alert users of the breach. The ICO fined Uber £385,000.

Gousto Recipe Boxes

Collects:

• Name and contact details
• IP address, previous purchases and recipes you look at
• Survey data e.g. household makeup, age, food preferences and allergies.

Do Gousto share your data with third parties for advertising purposes?

Yes.

Gousto says that: ‘your personal data will be shared to relevant third parties to allow you to receive tailored communications about products that may be of interest to you’.

Who do Gousto share your data with?

Gusto uses some social media features such as Facebook’s like button and LinkedIn’s share/follow button. In return, these social media platforms can collect information related to your visit on the Gusto website and use it for their own targeted advertising. Some examples of the social media platforms and other third parties Gousto share your data with are:

• Google
• Microsoft
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Youtube
• Appnexus
• AddRoll
• Epsilon Abacus

Have they made any big data-related headlines?

No headlines found. Please note that just because something is or isn’t in the news doesn’t mean a company is necessarily better or worse with data protection: not all data breaches are reported on or even detected.

What Data to HelloFresh Collect?

• Name, username, marital status, title, date of birth and gender
• Address, contact details and payment details
• IP address, browser type and version and time zone setting
• Purchase history
• Interests, preferences and feedback

Do they share your data with third parties for advertising purposes?

Yes.

Third parties can ‘create profiles of your usage behaviour’ and use it to ‘show you personalised advertising’.

Who do HelloFresh Share Data With?

HelloFresh works with Experian for direct marketing campaigns. HelloFresh says that: ‘Experian combines our customer records with their own data in order to identify an actionable audience within Facebook for targeted advertising.’

They also share data with:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google
• Pinterest
• Dynamic Yield
• Hotjar
• New Relic
• AppNexus
• Microsoft/Bing
• Cross Engage
• Taboola
• Crazy Egg
• Outbrain
• BidSwitch
• Flashtalking
• VE Interactive
• FLXONE

It’s always important to be aware of what information you’re sharing online, but to help you keep your data safe and your mind at ease, read through the privacy policies for websites you use. If you don’t like the idea of being targeted by ads based on information about your food preferences or any of the other data we listed above, it might be worth adjusting your privacy and cookie preferences in each app or website. Being aware of exactly what data these websites store about you, and how you can opt-out of their sharing policies to keep your personal information safe.

Content, research and information provided by and on behalf of Rightly.co.uk