Selling clickstream data to a third party

[Alexander Radyushin]

Recently, We have been approached by a company expressing interest in buying clickstream data from our Chrome extension. They claim to be interested in anonymous, non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) clickstream data for their internal product, most likely as a reseller.

We are well aware of the importance of user privacy and data security, so We are very hesitant when it comes to sharing any user data. However, I would like to learn more and initiate the discussion about clickstream data and its implications.

Thus, I kindly request your valuable input on any of the following:

1. Is it possible to guarantee a truly anonymous and non-PII sharing of the data?

2. What potential risks or considerations should a developer take into account when selling clickstream data?

Also, if anyone has insights into Chrome's policy regarding selling clickstream data, I would greatly appreciate it.

There was an article that such actions were enough to remove the extension from the Store.
 

https://www.computerworld.com/article/2908357/google-yanks-chrome-add-on-that-scraped-data-from-12m-users.html

I believe that engaging in an open discussion on this topic might benefit other developers who could have received similar offers or are curious about the clickstream data market.

[Uladzimir Yankovich]

Amazing topic!

Unfortunately, I have nothing to share. The only data I ever sold from my user extensions was the prices of goods from one huge marketplace to another marketplace. There, we were sure that we were not selling any user data. Rather, we used them as mini-parsers.

Indeed, it would be interesting to know the opinions and experience of the Chrome team and other developers.

[Uladzimir Yankovich]

Here are a couple of links on the topic. Companies I know that are currently actively working in the market for buying and selling data:

1. https://datos.live/

2. https://www.lordata.com/

3. https://www.insightvenue.com

[Deco]

1: No, there isn't a way to guarantee a form of anonymity for this data for PII, as much as these companies might tell you otherwise.

2: This form of third party data transmission is forbidden by CWS policy: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/program-policies/limited-use/#:~:text=All%20other%20transfers%2C%20uses%2C%20or,brokers%2C%20or%20other%20information%20resellers.

There have been several conversations of this topic, one of which of recent is available here: https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/11/chrome_extension_developer_pressure/

Cheers,

Deco

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