What you need to know
- Samsung Pay users in the U.S. can now opt-out of having their data sold to third-parties.
- The new setting appeared in the app after the California Consumer Privacy Act took effect on January 1, 2020.
- With "Do Not Sell" enabled, it could cause some features to cease working in the app.
If you've opened Samsung Pay recently, you might have been surprised to see a new card regarding the privacy of your profile. Tapping on the card will take you directly into the settings, allowing you to opt-out from Samsung Pay selling your data. However, it does warn that some features will cease to function with "Do Not Sell" enabled.
If you don't see the card on the home screen of the app, then you can try accessing it by opening the navigation drawer via the hamburger menu and selecting "Privacy controls." It's important to note that, so far, it appears only users in the U.S. are seeing these new privacy controls. Users in Europe and India are reporting the options are not available and it's likely the new setting is specific to the U.S.
Source: Android Central
The reason for the recent change has to do with the new California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA for short, which provides residents of California with more rights over their personal information.
California residents have the right to make requests to businesses concerning the access or use of their personal information (PI). PI includes information that identifies, describes, or could reasonably be linked with a consumer or their household.
Samsung's page on the CCPA states that residents of California can now request access to information a business has collected on them, request deletion of their personal information, or opt-out of having their information sold to third-parties. Fortunately, Samsung has not only enabled the option to opt-out of selling your info for California residents, but also for the entire United States. International users are a little less lucky, however.
It should be no surprise by now that we are constantly being tracked online and on our devices each day. Much of that data is most likely used to improve products and services, and of course, is also sold off to other companies. That doesn't make it sting any less, and it doesn't help when companies appear to not be upfront about what they are doing with your data.
In the case of Samsung Pay, it would have been preferable to have this setting from the beginning. Unfortunately, we live in a world where we need laws to protect our privacy, and many companies are willing to take advantage if those laws are not in place.
