"An unhealthy diet of targeted ads: an investigation in to how the diet industry exploits our data", 4 August 2021.

Companies selling diet programmes are using tests to lure users. Those tests encourage users to share sensitive personal data, including about their mental health. But what happens to the data? We investigated to find out.

Key findings:

• More and more companies selling diet programmes are targeting internet users with online tests with little to no clarity when it comes to what happens to your data.
• These tests request sensitive personal data about your medical history and mental health.
• For at least two of the programmes we looked at, the data we entered did not affect the programme we were being sold, raising questions as to why the data is collected in the first place.
• We conducted traffic analysis to find out what happens to the data and discovered that one of them actively collected and shared sensitive personal data, while the poor security practices of the others meant the data was de facto accessible to third parties.

As part of our research into the “AdTech” industry, Privacy International noticed that the diet ads we were targeted with led us to tests aimed at creating a so-called profile of our body and eating habits, to design a dieting programme, which they said were specific for our needs... Privacy International looked into those tests to find out what data those companies were collecting, what those programmes involved, where the data was going, and who it was shared with... we have looked into three companies offering tests online to help you ‘find the diet that is best for you’: BetterMe Meal Plan, Noom and VShred...