Trump 2020 Campaign Website Used Beacons To Collect Location Data From Visitors
A redesign of the campaign website for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election bid was temporarily collecting visitor’s location data for about a half-day on Tuesday, CBS News reported.
Trump’s team announced Tuesday it launched a “dynamic new website to provide, unique, behind the scenes view."
Read: Donald Trump Appointee Could Allow Fossil Fuel Companies He Lobbied For To Drill On Federal Land
However, the website came with sketchy Terms & Conditions pointing to collection of visitors’ location data using beacons.
"We may also collect other information based on your location and your device's proximity to 'beacons' and other similar proximity systems, including, for example, the strength of the signal between the beacon and your device and the duration that your device is near the beacon," the website's privacy policy said at the time.
Beacons are Bluetooth-enable devices that work as one-way transmitters that send signals to other Bluetooth gadgets that pass nearby. Beacons are usually used by retailers to send targeted ads or alerts to people walking near stores or walking inside a mall.
It is unknown why the Trump campaign wanted to use the data from beacons, but one reason might be so the team could start sending users alerts or other messages regarding his bid.
The privacy policy was changed right after CBS questioned Trump campaign digital director Brad Parscale over the intended use of the devices. However, similar privacy policies that include proximity beacons are used on the websites of the Trump Organization, Trump International Realty and Trump’s Florida country club, Mar-a-Lago.
The privacy policy on the Trump Organization's site says it collects information based on visitors’ location by using beacons
“The type of location data we collect depends on a number of factors, including the type of device you are using [e.g., laptop, smartphone, tablet] and the type of connection enabled on your device [e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, broadband cable],” the site says.
The site adds:
“The Trump apps or other features of the services may rely on this location information in order to provide certain location-based services, such as promotional offers, merchandise offers, event information and other related content that may be of interest to you. We may also use location information to improve the functionality of the Trump apps and our other applications and services.”
To protect your location data, the privacy policy on Trump’s site says visitors should “opt-out” by disabling location information and Bluetooth features on their devices.
The Trump’s sites, including his campaign site, were developed by the web design firm founded by Parscale.
Meanwhile, apps linked to the Trump campaign and the America First and Trump Golf apps includes access to phone location, contacts, calendar, camera, microphone and the ability to read the contents of your USB storage and modify or delete the contents of your USB storage.
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