I stumbled on the news of the city of Los Angeles suing IBM-owned The Weather Channel of covertly mining user data.
Now, given the amount of time we spend online and the variety of services we use without paying a fee, we have become immune, to some extent, about the way many such free services ‘use’ our data.
There is a more nuanced level of detail when you look at the lawsuit ().
As you can see, it is not mere mining of data that is the problem. Most apps mine data and that’s almost taken for granted when we click on ‘Yes’ for sharing access with our contacts, giving apps permission to make calls, monitor sms, access location etc.
But, the way The Weather Channel prompts people with the location-access pop-up is different for the US vs. Europe.
In US, the pop-up seems deceptively straight-forward, even though, as alleged, that data was used far beyond offering location-related information.
In Europe, possibly owning more stringent rules, there is actually a ‘Learn More’ prompt, for whatever it is worth!
Interestingly, since I use a Xiaomi weigh scale, when I recently opened the app, it prompted me with an updated Software usage related agreement and policy.
If I do not agree to it, the only other option is to exit the app! So, I clicked on the 2 links provided, one for ‘Software Agreement’ and another for ‘Privacy Policy’. And there’s no India-specific software agreement or privacy policy!
I first thought these are only language translations of the policy, not country-specific. But that wouldn’t explain why there are 2 different versions in English, one each for UK and US.
Ironically, despite Xiaomi making such deep inroads into India, and even looking at launching a whole range of white goods beyond phones and TVs, there is no India-centric version of either policy!
So, in India, for a Chinese company, are we supposed to agree to the terms of US or UK just because it is in English? That doesn’t sound appropriate at all.
Does Xiaomi have terms and policies regarding use of private data specifically catering to India? If not, do we have a choice of not agreeing to a generic policy (meant for US/UK) and still continue to use the product? We obviously cannot move to other countries just to agree to the privacy policy.
I don’t think there is any precedence of any city/state suing a technology brand in India for misuse/abuse of data. We anyway have successive Governments trying to amass a lot of private data through Aadhaar, and continue to insist on its usage despite the Supreme Court coming down on many such use-cases.