Privacy policies give companies lots of room to collect, share data

Future Publishing | Future | Getty Images

A selection of electric toothbrushes, including a Philips Sonicare 3 Series, Oral-B Pro 6500 Black Smart Series Bluetooth, Colgate Proclinical A1500 Expert White, Philips Sonicare DiamondClean, Foreo Issa and Panasonic EW-DE92 Ionic Rechargeable, taken on October 6, 2015. (Photo by Joseph Branston/T3 Magazine via Getty Images)

Urbelis is concerned about the sharing of information. “What really terrified me about this was that in the Sonicare privacy policy, they tell you they’re going to share this information,” he said.

A Philips spokesperson said the data collected is used for personalization.

“The Sonicare app provides personalized advice to users on how to improve their brushing and oral hygiene habits based on their personal data… Based on the personal data, the user will be able to receive personalized services, e.g. set personal goals, follow progress and receive oral care recommendations,” said Philips spokeswoman Natasha Best in an email. “The Privacy Notice is aimed at transparency on this point, as it describes in detail which data will be received by Philips… For clarity, we wish to underline that some of the data fields to create a MyPhilips account (such as gender, age) are optional, so a user can decide to provide those data, or choose not to.”

As for the third parties, Philips told CNBC, “This section of our Sonicare app Privacy Notice describes the option for our users to indicate their wish to share their personal data with other parties (i.e. independent third parties), who will then process the user’s personal data for their own purposes and provide their own services to the user. The Privacy Notice describes who these parties are and informs the app users that Philips will only share their data with these independent third parties at the users’ request. In these cases, the app will ask for the user’s consent before sharing any data.”

Kasdan flagged Starbucks’ app and website for collecting much information that has nothing to do with serving coffee.