It鈥檚 a common question in today鈥檚 digital age: How much of your personal information is your Tinder app or Fitbit logging?
More importantly, how are the companies behind those apps using your data?
A new online privacy tool called Access My Info is designed to help consumers find those answers easily.
A revamped version of , which launched Wednesday in Canada, helps consumers find out what companies and governments know about you and how they share that information.
Consumers fill out a form on the Access My Info website, and the tool helps them craft a custom-made letter that poses questions about how a dating app or fitness tracker collects and uses your data.
Users may tap on the app they want to request information from, such as Jawbone or eHarmony, and a letter tailored to that company is generated by Access My Info鈥檚 system.
For instance, a template letter to Tinder asks the company to provide information on geolocation data and personal and lifestyle information they store, as well as IP address logs associated with the user and their devices.
Users then have the option to send the letter via email or postal mail.
The letters were written by policy experts at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto鈥檚 Munk School of Global Affairs, which operates a Telecommunications Transparency Project. The initiative looks at how telecommunications data is monitored and collected for commercial and intelligence purposes.
Andrew Hilts, executive director of Open Effect, one of the groups involved in creating the tool, said Access to Info empowers consumers to exercise their legal right to understand what data is available to the companies when users sign up to use their products, and whether that information is being shared.
鈥淭hese (app) policies and permissions give a lot of latitude to companies to collect data and use it for unclear purposes,鈥 Hilts told CTVNews.ca. 鈥淎nd so we hope that the tool can help restore some of the balance of power there and give citizens the ability to better understand what鈥檚 actually being collected.鈥
Canadians can request complete records of their personal information held by service providers, but Hilts said consumers don鈥檛 always know what questions to ask.
Hilts said he hopes Access My Info will help consumers make informed choices, and help service providers determine whether their own policies are in line with Canada鈥檚 privacy laws.
CTV technology analyst Carmi Levy says a tool such as Access My Info is 鈥渓ong overdue鈥 and called it a 鈥渨elcome new resource鈥 for Canadians to regain control of their personal information.
鈥淭echnology has been racing ahead so quickly and with it, Canadians鈥 control of their online privacy,鈥 Levy told CTVNews.ca. 鈥淎nd so the need for something like this, has been growing exponentially.鈥
Levy said fitness apps鈥 recent rise in popularity, for example, has significantly increased the potential for so-called data leakage.
鈥淚n many cases we don鈥檛 even realize that information about us is being shared with third parties, it鈥檚 almost happening right underneath our noses,鈥 Levy said, adding information can be 鈥渃ompromised in many different forms, even through that seemingly unassuming-looking fitness band that you wear on your wrist.鈥
Levy said in some cases, the companies that are selling the apps and services may be 鈥渂lindly鈥 acting without realizing that they are not complying with privacy or confidentiality laws.
鈥淪o what this does is it 鈥 helps industries raise their game and learn more about what they should and should not be doing,鈥 Levy said.
Access My Info is funded by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority.
CIRA spokesperson David Fowler said it鈥檚 important that people are more 鈥渄igitally literate鈥 and protected when they go online.
鈥淛ust as we should do periodic checks of our own credit scores to ensure that our financial house is in order, it鈥檚 equally, if not more, important to know what the companies we do business with are doing with the information we give them,鈥 Fowler said in a statement.
