Edison Mail Responds to Report on Email Apps Selling Anonymized Data Scraped From Inboxes [Updated]

A report today from Motherboard highlights several email apps that sell anonymized or pseudonymised data collected from users' inboxes, including Edison Mail, Cleanfox, and Slice, adding that many users are unaware of this practice.

edison mail
An excerpt from the report:

The popular Edison email app, which is in the top 100 productivity apps on the Apple app store, scrapes users' email inboxes and sells products based off that information to clients in the finance, travel, and e-Commerce sectors. The contents of Edison users' inboxes are of particular interest to companies who can buy the data to make better investment decisions, according to a J.P. Morgan document obtained by Motherboard.

Data obtained by Motherboard reveals what some of the information scraped from emails can look like, using Slice as an example:

A spreadsheet containing data from Rakuten's Slice, an app that scrapes a user's inbox so they can better track packages or get their money back once a product goes down in price, contains the item that an app user bought from a specific brand, what they paid, and an unique identification code for each buyer.

The report serves as a good reminder to review the privacy policies of apps that you use. Edison Mail is transparent about its data collection in its privacy policy, for example, noting that it uses "non-personal data such as seller, product and price extracted from information we collect" to help its Edison Trends business partners "aggregate and understand commerce trends."

Edison's privacy policy and support website also indicate that users can opt out of having their anonymized data shared with Edison Trends partners by navigating to Account > Settings > Manage Privacy in the app.

Most importantly, Edison Mail requires users to accept or decline Edison Trends data collection during initial setup of the app.

Edison emphasizes its transparency in its response to the report:

To keep our Edison Mail app free, and to protect your privacy by rejecting an advertising-based business model, our company Edison Software, measures e-commerce through a technology that automatically recognizes commercial emails and extracts anonymous purchase information from them. Our technology is designed to ignore personal and work email, which does not help us measure market trends.

Edison puts privacy first in everything we do as a company and that includes making our users aware of how we use their data in our products. You have complete control over how your information is used and we allow you to opt-out of data sharing in our research product, without impacting your app experience. We strive to be as transparent as possible about our business practices in our press communications, Edison Mail website, Edison Trends website, privacy policy, blog posts, on our app store pages, on social media, and of course, in our app itself. We do not participate in any ad targeting of our users and do not allow others to do ad targeting of our users.

To learn more, read Edison's lengthy blog post on its business model from last year.

Update: Cleanfox parent company Foxintelligence has also responded to the report:

Since the very creation of Foxintelligence, we have chosen to be even more demanding than what is required by the General Regulations on the Protection of Personal Data (GDPR):

- We have always been completely transparent on the business model of Cleanfox and Foxintelligence. Nothing is hidden in illegible pages like Privacy Policy or Terms of Use. On the contrary, the business model is clearly and simply indicated when the user gives us his consent.

- We are also committed to never resell the personal data of our users, not to participate in any advertising targeting device and not to cause any harm to our users. Foxintelligence creates and resells anonymized and aggregated statistics, like any survey institute does.

- We believe in a model in which the service is free and the user is not the product.

Tag: Edison

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 8 New Features

Thursday January 9, 2025 5:45 am PST by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. iPhone 17 Pro concept based on rumors Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of January 2025: More aluminum: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models ...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

New Apple TV and HomePod Mini Launching This Year With One Thing in Common

Wednesday January 8, 2025 6:18 am PST by
It was recently reported that new Apple TV and new HomePod mini models will launch this year, and the devices are expected to have one thing in common. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last month reported that the new Apple TV and the new HomePod mini will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip. Gurman said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, so that could end up being a key upgrade...
iPhone SE 4 Thumb 1

New iPhone SE and iPad 11 Launch Timing Allegedly Revealed by Leaker

Tuesday January 7, 2025 11:12 am PST by
A new iPhone SE and an iPad 11 might be coming very soon. In late December, a private account on X with a track record of leaking accurate iOS-related information said devices codenamed "V59" and "J481" will be released alongside iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has previously reported that "V59" is a new iPhone SE, and that "J481" is a new entry-level iPad. iOS 15.3, iOS ...
airpods pro 2 botw

Hearing a Mysterious Chime From Your AirPods Pro Case? It's a Feature

Thursday January 9, 2025 3:42 pm PST by
If you've been hearing a chiming sound from your AirPods Pro 2 case when the AirPods are charging, it's a feature that Apple added with the launch of Hearing Health last year. In a support guide, Apple says that the AirPods Pro may play a sound every so often while in the case to ensure the microphones and speakers are working as intended. From Apple: To help ensure that your AirPods...
M6 MacBook Pro Feature 1

5 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's MacBook Pro

Wednesday January 8, 2025 6:33 am PST by
Apple in October 2024 overhauled its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, adding M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips, Thunderbolt 5 ports on higher-end models, display changes, and more. That's quite a lot of updates in one go, but if you think this means a further major refresh for the MacBook Pro is now several years away, think again. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has said he expects only a small...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.2.1 With Bug Fixes

Monday January 6, 2025 10:07 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 18.2.1 and iPadOS 18.2.1, minor updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems. iOS 18.2.1 and iPadOS 18.2.1 come almost a month after Apple released iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release notes, iOS 18.2.1...
airpods 4 blue

Apple's Student Offer With Free AirPods Returns in These Four Countries

Thursday January 9, 2025 7:18 am PST by
Apple's annual "Back to School" or "Back to Uni" promotion has returned this week in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and South Korea. From January 8 through March 13, qualifying higher-education students and staff in these countries can receive free AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation with the purchase of any new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or iMac, or a free Apple Pencil Pro or Apple...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Horizontal 1

iPhone 17 Pro Main Camera Sensor 'Smaller' Than iPhone 16 Pro Sensor

Friday January 10, 2025 3:14 am PST by
This year's iPhone 17 Pro models will feature a smaller main camera sensor than the one used in the Fusion camera currently found in iPhone 16 Pro models, according to Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station. The Chinese leaker claims that Apple will adopt a 1/1.3" sensor for the 48MP main camera in the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, down from the 1/1.28" sensor used in the iPhone 16...

Top Rated Comments

cloudyo Avatar
64 months ago
If you don't pay for the product, you are the product.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mdracer Avatar
64 months ago
Free, has a price.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
H3LL5P4WN Avatar
64 months ago
And this is why I stick to Apple's official apps.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zinacef Avatar
64 months ago

Most people in the real world know you can't get by with just Apple products.
I guess I'm not most people as I get by just fine with only Apple products (hardware & software).
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Cosmosent Avatar
64 months ago
RE: "The report serves as a good reminder to review the privacy policies of apps that you use."

I disagree 100% !

Apple needs to add something new to App Submittals, a checkbox that says "Collects NO User Data".

If an App Dev checks it off, & the app is approved & later found to violate the term, it should be permanently removed from the App Store !

BTW, the Collects NO User Data "idea" originated from some other member here on MR, years ago !

Credit goes where credit is due !

I do NOT remember who the MR member is.

And very specifically, Apple needs to add something to App Store preview for each app, that indentifies whether the checkbox has been marked off OR NOT by the App Dev.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MRrainer Avatar
64 months ago
TANSTAAFL
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)