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Here's how your router collects data and handles your privacy

Wi-Fi router companies say they don't track the websites you visit, but all of them collect and share user data for marketing
 
by Ry Crist 

Part 4 - Where is my data going?

Even if your router isn't tracking the specific websites you visit, it's still collecting data as you use it. Much of this is technical data about your network and the devices that use it that the manufacturer needs to keep things running smoothly and to detect potential threats or other issues. In most cases, your router will also collect personal data, location data, and other identifiers -- and like I said, every company I looked into acknowledged that it uses data like that for marketing purposes in one way or another.

Using your data for marketing often means that your data is being shared with third parties. The danger is that a company might share it with a third party outside of its control, that would then be free to use and share your data however it likes. 

"When data is used to target ads, it's usually not just used by the company that's collecting the data," said Cyphers. "The company is going to share it with a number of advertising companies who might share it downstream with a number of other, vaguely ad-related companies. All of them are going to use that data to augment profiles they already have about you."

With respect to routers, all of the companies I looked at acknowledged that they share user data with third parties for marketing purposes. The majority of these companies claim that these are in-house third parties bound by the company's own policies, and all of the companies I reached out to said that they don't share data with third parties for their own, independent purposes. Still, that's a tall ask for privacy-conscious consumers.

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