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Coventry University researchers shocked by excessive data harvesting by apps
May 2023 by Researchers at Coventry University
Researchers at Coventry University are helping people to safeguard their privacy after discovering excessive data harvesting by websites and apps.
Citizen Scientists Investigating Cookies and App GDPR compliance (CSI-COP) is an award-winning privacy project led by Coventry University’s Centre for Computational Science and Mathematical Modelling (CSM) in collaboration with nine other organisations.
Its aim is to investigate what personal data websites and apps are automatically tracking when a user visits web pages or uses apps, and which have been set up to be more respectful of users’ privacy.
As part of the project members of the public were recruited and trained as ‘citizen scientists’ to investigate what cookie notices and privacy policies websites and apps use.
This week during a special event taking place in Coventry University’s Brussels Hub (23-26 May 2023), the CSI-COP collaborators and privacy champions will present their results in exhibition-style, launching its repository of cookies and online trackers containing the project’s findings on more than 1,000 websites and apps examined.
Many websites use forms of tracking, including ‘cookies’, to analyse a user’s journey through web pages or apps, monitoring information such as the time spent browsing, and where the visitor goes to next.
Such data is valuable and is often shared between third parties and sold to online advertisers who can use it to target users with products and services based on their browsing activities.
Under GDPR legislation websites and apps must now ask visitors’ permission to allow cookies, but many users simply accept their use as it is often more convenient and it can be harder to disable cookies on some platforms.
Dr Huma Shah, who is co-leading the project at Coventry University, said: “We have been quite shocked by what we’ve found, apps for instance should only require the permissions needed to make that app function, but many take permissions that are completely unnecessary, often asking for access to pictures and contacts.
“While websites now require users to agree to cookies, because there is no standard cookie notice, many of them are ambiguous and they often use complicated legal language.
“Our repository will enable people to find if an app they use or a website they visited featured in CSI-COP’s investigations. We need websites and apps to be transparent about what data is being collected and seek informed consent for personal data.”
Professor Ian Marshall, Deputy-Vice-Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer at Coventry University, was one of those recruited as a citizen scientist for the project.
Professor Marshall said: “It was not until I became involved with CSI-COP that I realised how popular websites and mobile phone apps use cookies and various forms of trackers to send data to third parties. The techniques used by citizen scientists are easy to learn to help anyone manage their or their children’s exposure on the internet.
“The CSI-COP repository has a searchable list of websites and mobile device apps that have already been analysed by the citizens scientists that can be accessed by anyone. I now no longer just press the accept button when the cookies banners appear and have used a more privacy focussed browser and phone apps because of CSI-COP.”
CSI-COP has also launched its own tracking-free website, designed to protect the privacy of all users and encourage others to adopt a privacy-by-design website philosophy.
The public repository of website and app investigations will be made available on CSI-COP’s website later this month.
About Coventry University
Coventry University is a global, modern university with a mission of Creating Better Futures. We were founded by entrepreneurs and industrialists in 1843 as the Coventry School of Design and we continue to have strong links with the public and private sector, providing job-ready graduates with the skills and creative thinking to improve their communities.
With a proud tradition of innovative teaching and learning, Coventry University has world-class campus facilities, the UK’s first standalone 5G network and a digital community of learning. Our students are part of a global network that has 50,000 learners studying Coventry University degrees in more than 40 different countries and partnerships with 150 higher education providers worldwide.
We have greatly increased our research capacity and capability with a focus on impactful research, delivered for and with partners to address real-world challenges and support business and communities to grow. The depth and breadth of rapidly growing research portfolio was validated by the latest UK research assessment, which saw us jump 22 places in the research power rankings.
Over two centuries, we have flourished in Coventry and Coventry University Group now also delivers access to our range of high-quality services and partnerships through bases in London, Scarborough, Belgium, Poland, Egypt, Dubai, Singapore and Africa. We will be teaching students at a new campus in China in a joint institute with the Communication University of China in the near future.
In April 2022, we were honoured with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade, the UK’s most prestigious business award. In recent years, we have won many awards and vastly improved our rankings in the league tables that matter to students – but what matters to us is delivering transformational change for our students, partners and communities around the world as we continue to evolve into a global education group.
