Beware Valued Opinions Notify

Hi I am a lurker on these forums and have found them very useful. I don't normally post but I felt that everyone should be aware of this as I have un-installed it after my DH became concerned that when he connected to his bank it didn't show the correct security.

If you have installed the Valued Opinions Notify application it is extremely important you re-read the privacy policy (https:// www .valued opinions .co. uk/home/notify/notifyprivacy-policy/). It is also important to read the linked-to End User License Agreement (https:// www. valued opinions.co.uk/eula/) This application is created by Digital Marketing Research Apps (DMRA). It is important to point out that by installing and using this application you are not only agreeing for them to track your internet usage, you are also agreeing to allow them to decrypt and process/track/store any secure internet traffic.

Although the intention from their privacy policy is to track your purchases made on secure sites, by decrypting your secure internet traffic they are also decrypting and processing connections to internet banking and creditcard processing sites. Their privacy policy does state that they have processes in place to remove personally identifiable information and that the transmission of any data they collect is done securely.

Data gathered by this application is then sent and processed by an affiliate of DMRA, Hitwise Pty Ltd, who are a subsidiary of Experian.

The biggest irritation about this for me is that the application in question is billed as a simple notification for new surveys but it seems the real purpose of this application is to collect more research marketing data beyond the scopes of the surveys. To achieve this collection of data it is decrypting supposedly secure connections just makes it worse. Even more so that the privacy policy does not make it clear exactly what "your transactions on secure sites" actually implies and how it compromises your connections to highly-sensitive web sites such as online banking.

To put it into perspective, the data this application processes (but doesn't necessarily collect or send anywhere, mind you - but that's not to say it definately does not) contains things like (but is not limited to):
- credit card numbers
- VISA/Mastercard Secure passwords
- email accounts and passwords
- contents of your emails
- facebook passwords


Essentially any information that is either sent to your web browser or that you send to any website, regardless of a secure connection, is being processed by this application. Although they indicate they intend to remove any personal data from what is gathered, any processes they have in place to anonymise your data cannot be 100% guarenteed and they may (inadvertently) collect and process this data. They also do not indicate if this removal of personal information is done on your PC or after they have sent it to their servers. Any compromise of their servers or the connection between your computer and their servers would leave what data they did collect open to abuse.


Hope that helps some people