BBC will ‘retain your viewing history’

[Scubbie]

BBC will

Imagine an Auntie who never forgets

Last week the BBC launched a mobile app, called BBC+, delivering “customisable content collections” to your phone or tablet. It’s a personalised service which requires an email address.

Last year, when the corporation announced its plans for personalised services, it made several data protection promises. Specifically, Phil Fearnley (“Director of Homepage and myBBC”) promised:

“We’ll put you in control over how we use your data, and be open and transparent about what we’re using your data for. You will always be able to change or delete it.”

But that isn’t entirely true. The BBC tells us data is retained even after you delete your account - only in “anonymised” form.

Here’s what a spokesman told us:

Is it possible to delete your profile?

You can delete your BBC Account.

When a profile is deleted is the data deleted along with it?

Personally Identifiable Information is deleted. We continue to store some activity data in an anonymised form.

Please tell me of how the ICO has advised the BBC on personal data protection?

We have met and continue to engage with the ICO on personal data usage. We regularly review the ICO’s published guidance about current and future legislation, particularly in relation to GDPR. We comply with all aspects of the Data Protection Act and take the operational privacy and security of people’s personal information very seriously. The BBC currently has a privacy policy which is published at bbc.co.uk/privacy.

What does anonymised mean?

As we know from work by privacy researchers, it’s trivially easy to personally identify an individual from “anonymised” metadata. Particularly if you have the individual’s location data. This issue has spawned the field of differential privacy research, which was recently joined by a high profile supporter: Apple. It’s something Apple is attempting to address with "differential privacy".

We’re trying to find out what, exactly, the BBC means by anonymised and will let you know. As Fearnley says, the BBC is not trying to sell you anything, so does not have the commercial incentive to mine your viewing history. But others might find that viewing history very useful.

Bootnote

The pledge in full:

We believe your data is yours. Wherever we collect and use your data, we will only use it to bring you the things that matter to you, surface hidden gems that you might not otherwise have found, and improve the BBC’s services. We’ll put you in control over how we use your data, and be open and transparent about what we’re using your data for. You will always be able to change or delete it. We will not do anything with your data that isn’t clearly explained, or that you don’t agree to. We will never sell your data, let other organisations track what you do with the BBC for their own purposes, or spam you.

Comment: Woohoo! Something else to embarrass people with some 20 years later. I can see it now... "Well I see that when you were 4 you watched nothing more than Teletubbies all day, how has your interests changed now?"

[lettice]

More crap from the register.

During the beta of this app, no one ever mentioned or showed any concern about that.
The app is very good, and makes a good job of personalisation of data across the bbc.

The BBC has had personalisation on many of its apps/website for sometime and you can use your single bbc id across all of them and share all that content easily. They have done a good job there and that aspect of their apps is the envy of and highly regarded in the app development world.

Paul Owen, Head of Product, Homepage and BBC+, says: “As 7 million people have signed up to myBBC, we are increasingly able to provide them with more of what they love based on what they’ve told us. BBC+ is a key part of the journey towards achieving a much more personal BBC, and truly brings topical information from across the whole organisation to your pocket, ready for you to access at your convenience. This is just the start for us, and over time the app will evolve and add new features based on user feedback.”

myBBC facts and stats:

7.2 million people have signed in to the BBC to date – with over a third coming back each month.
Signed-in users consumed 44 per cent more BBC content than those not signed in (Oct-Dec 2015).
1.6 billion programmes have been recommended to viewers and listeners.
Download the BBC+ app from Google Play (Android) and iTunes (iOS)

BBC - Make the BBC your own with the new BBC+ app - Media Centre

[Scubbie]

Ok, it is fair to say that the Register wasn't the only one to pick up on the potential privacy issues.

I also know that often some things checked over in beta don't get changed, even if there is some disagreement by the testers.

I wonder just how many people read the full licensing information when they install any software these days?

[lettice]

Ok, it is fair to say that the Register wasn't the only one to pick up on the potential privacy issues.

The register is the dross of reporting in the tech world. Winge, winge and winge.
Not respected and if you worked for a very large IT company a decade back, they made up a few stories that had a big sour effect on many peoples lives in the UK. So I may be a little biased.

I also know that often some things checked over in beta don't get changed, even if there is some disagreement by the testers.

To be fair to the BBC, their beta's are some of the best, often face to face on site and still kept involved well after launch. Does depend on their 3rd parties sometimes, but they are very open to opinion.
As a 3rd party supplier with them too, they have always been very open to ideas and implement many of them
Do though just hate their 'yellow sticky' office love though. Old habits die hard.

I wonder just how many people read the full licensing information when they install any software these days?

Very few, most would never get past the first paragraph and would probably not understand or care.

[pete.i]

Very few, most would never get past the first paragraph and would probably not understand or care.

And it is deliberately done in that way to confuse and bamboozle ordinary people just so that we do not read it. Every EULA that I have ever read, that isn't many, is full of gobble de gook and legal speak quite deliberately designed to prevent people from reading it.