But Unroll.me (which USA TODAY writers have previously recommended) stands apart from other data-driven services because it needs access to your entire inbox. The travel-management app TripIt (also covered here) will also make the same request so it can find messages about upcoming travel, but you can also forward those e-mails to the service yourself.

A situation like that requires a high degree of trust in the company involved, which in turn requires transparency from that firm about what it will do with your data. Unroll.me flunks in that regard: Its frequently-asked-questions page doesn’t even try to explain its business model. Its privacy policy discloses the practice (“We may collect, use, transfer, sell, and disclose non-personal information for any purpose”), but Hedaya now admits that’s not good enough… More at USA Today.

Well worth checking what is happening with the apps you use. Chances are that the results may be more than a little depressing.

Categories: Apps