Permission Slip by CR Reviews

Unfortunately PermissionSlip submits all of the email addresses you supply with every request you make. The goal is understandable (to increase the chance that the recipient will find your account), but it gives the target company valuable personal info which they didn't previously have. For privacy and security reasons I use a custom email address for every account (easy if you have a catch-all address), so it is at best pointless to submit all those addresses with every request. At worst it allows the receiving company to cross-reference those addresses and learn more about me from and of my personal information that they've acquired elsewhere, but which they didn't previously know belonged to me. Request: please let me specify which email address(es) to submit with each request. Don't make me enter all the addresses in advance, and don't automatically save the address because that would just mean I have to tediously delete it every time.

I am writing this review to warn you about the dangers of using PermissionSlip. I made the mistake of assuming it would only delete my saved data from certain companies, but instead it erased my entire account details and left me with a nightmare of a situation. PermissionSlip has caused me so many problems and headaches.

I thought it would be similar to the privacy app Jumbo, which does an amazing job at explaining why it matters to control your data privacy and walks you through each step. Unfortunately, Permission Slip did not do a great job of highlighting the potential impacts of assuming it's only going to delete your saved data from certain companies. It completely deletes all your account details and erases your account completely.

PermissionSlip claims that you can revoke its ability to close your accounts, but when I tried to find that capability, it was nowhere to be found. I even wrote an email to the company, but received no response back. PermissionSlip is full of dark patterns and now I'm worried about all of my accounts, including others they intend to support like Apple, Google, and even cell phone carriers.

I highly advise against using PermissionSlip and wished I never had used it in the first place. Please be cautious and don't blindly trust PermissionSlip, even though it's "powered by consumer reports

Companies harvest and sell our data for profit. It’s often done without our consent. Have you heard of a data broker? They’ve heard of you. PermissionSlip makes it simple and fun to take back your data. It’s refreshing and empowering. Eager to see more firms on the list. Glad that the auto request feature is watching out for new actors.

PermissionSlip is very elegant and functional. It allowed me to see what companies have access to my personal info, and prevent them from selling that info. It seems to parse through the fine print and legalese of each individual user agreement I’ve signed and shows me some easy options for safeguarding my info.

I did some of this manually, then found the ‘auto request’ feature which seems to work well at just automating my privacy requests.

I’m a big fan of learning how things work behind the scenes and companies selling our data is something that’s confusing and really behind the scenes.

A lot of companies make a lot of cabbage from us without us understanding how! Like how does a company sell Me-ness based off of the things I do online etc... ?

Since that’s beyond my knowledge, although I’m learning more each day, I’d prefer they don’t go around selling gossip about me. PermissionSlip does that!

Fantastic idea and PermissionSlip does seem to work to remove your data from third parties. 4 stars because sometimes PermissionSlip displays a screen that the user cannot take action on (I.e., you’re stuck). I’m running most current iOS.

Everything I needed and more! I’ve always been so overwhelmed by where my data lives, what it’s being used for, let alone how I can control it. I’m learning so much from Permission Slip, and feel like I finally have some power back. Thank you PS!

I set up an account and contacted my companies to either delete my information, or ‘Do not sell my Information. Today, however, I am unable to log into my account. It gives me an error, and will not let me reset my password. I am getting follow-up emails from the companies that I notified. Weird.

Helped me delete data from a dozen companies so far, can’t wait to see more added to the list. Nice to have someone looking out for people instead of companies for a change.

A great way to improve the privacy of my data so corporate actors can’t use it for their own benefit without my permission. Eager for them to grow the range of companies included.

This type of authorized agent app is a key step toward ensuring everybody can exercise the data rights we have under laws like CCPA, GDPR, etc. Great to see this finally happening!

PermissionSlip is built by consumer reports. If you use it to opt out of consumer reports tracking, days later you’ll receive an automated reply from CR saying that they can’t honor the request and send new instruction.

If PermissionSlip doesn’t even work with its parent company why should I expect it to work with anything else?

Great interface and important to stop data tracking.

Great in theory but PermissionSlip never sends the required verification email so it is worthless.

It looks like it could be very beneficial if one could get past verification so I will leave it at a 2.

Looks like a good app, but…maybe later.

Couldn’t login due to bugged login screen. Can’t scroll or tap to get to required fields and TOS acknowledgments.

I can’t create an account because the email verification code is not being sent to my email. PermissionSlip looked promising.

Oh boy, have you heard about Permission Slip? It's like the Tinder for your data privacy, but instead of swiping right to find "the one," you swipe right to tell data brokers, "You're not the one who's allowed to have my data!" PermissionSlip is basically your helicopter parent for the digital age. "Stop selling my child's data, Karen. He's not a piece of merchandise!"

Permission Slip is like having an overly-attached bodyguard who not only fights off the data creeps but also walks up to them and says, "Delete his data, and do it NOW!" Oh, and it's from Consumer Reports, so it's basically like your stern, but fair, aunt who's always got your back at family dinners when everyone else is getting into your business. Swipe right on Permission Slip; it's the only relationship you won't regret in the morning!

I’ve been a Consumer Reports subscriber for decades and recently learned of PermissionSlip. I installed it today on my iPhone 13 Pro and noticed right away that wording within PermissionSlip is super huge and that some items extend off the screen. I was able to set it up and configure many settings. However there are items at the bottom of the screen that are cut off as they extend beyond the visible screen area. Also, when stepping through the companies selections and trying to configure them i often see the Learn More button covered up by the Skip This Company link which seems superimposed over the other.

These issues need to be fixed to make PermissionSlip truly usable.

My phone is running the very latest IOS.

iPads have nice big screens and snap-on keyboards. Some people even use them instead of laptops. It would be a lot easier to type in all the info we need to enter if PermissionSlip was actually designed for the iPad’s full UI instead of a scrunched iPhone 4 UI.

Apple has been bending backwards to make it easy for apps to incorporate adaptive layouts. You just have to make up your mind to do it, and stop listening to those silly PMs who say “iPads only have __% market share.” That might be true, but it’s the % you want the most.

(iPads are also better for reading Consumer Reports. Just saying.)

I download this because of the good review in the Washington Post, but it’s proving to be very difficult to set up an account. PermissionSlip also does not play well with apples keychain, so this means that things that should fill automatically have to be typed over and over again. Even after setting up an account and logging in it just freezes and doesn’t go anywhere. It certainly doesn’t make me confident that I would depend on it for accessing many accounts, which are actually important, even if they are sharing too much data. Why should I have any confidence that it will behave properly?

I'm impressed with the user-friendly design of the Permission Slip app, which empowers everyday users to have greater control over their personal data. Kudos to Consumer Reports for their commendable work. I was easily able to request enhanced privacy from several services I frequently use. Data collected by each service was clearly summarized.

PermissionSlip asks way too much info, and that is for each company… by submitting requested info, you actually increase additional risk of your data being sold or leaked. Wish there is an app that can search the internet, let you know which companies have you data by your email address. Let you decide which company’s account you want to delete. And PermissionSlip does the rest, with updates and confirmation, etc.

For me the current design of PermissionSlip is clunky and ineffective

Initial attempts to create an account failed, very likely because of demand for PermissionSlip . Waited a couple hours and all went smoothly. Within another couple hours was able to begin the process of requesting that data not be sold, or deleting accounts altogether. Layout is easy to navigate - deck of cards is brilliant. Great app!

Very buggy to set up. Not really usable because of that.

Update: has started working much better.

One suggestion for improvement: several of my requests to stop selling data were denied because I don’t live in California. It would be good if there were a way to tailor the options depending upon the state one lives in.

This probably isn’t great for mobile anyway — way too much typing — but the UI is so broken, I can’t enter my address or even send feedback without extremely stupid workarounds to get to the submit button.

Since I couldn’t get it to accept my address (after the stupid state drop-down, the screen just disappeared), I have no idea how well it works or if they fixed the multiple email address thing.

PermissionSlip has probably the best privacy policy I’ve seen in decades of reviewing privacy policies, but it doesn’t work.

I can’t login using my existing Consumer Reports account. When I try to ask for an email to reset my password, PermissionSlip goes to a small box with no text, no way to type, no way to move forward. The same thing happens when I close PermissionSlip , reopen and try to create a new account (at the point where I go to submit the login credentials.)

PermissionSlip as it stands is unusable on my iPhone 13. I may try again in a few days, hopefully there’ll be an update to fix broken functionality.

Downloaded PermissionSlip today and it does not work.

Had to sign up a second time with a different email as first one I couldn’t get past the What state do you live in ? screen and after I signed out, I could never log back in, get an error message or a screen freeze.

I got in on the second try, setting up new account with another email but my home screen is blank, won’t set up Auto Requests, won’t save additional email addresses (get an error message with a weird header screen) and generally won’t function.

I have done the user agreement, authorization, phone, primary email address and legal name Auto and Home are blank with a faint spinning ball. Requests says to get swiping but nothing happens when you swipe I’m assuming its an Apple issue but at the moment PermissionSlip is non-functioning.

Update:Since my initial review, the system capacity has been increased and now PermissionSlip is working. I have sent many requests to various websites to ot share my date, so now I am awaiting responses to determine the effectiveness of PermissionSlip.

PermissionSlip never sends a confirmation email, which is necessary to move forward with any request. What a WASTE!!!!

Tried installing this several times with no luck. Screens froze and no confirmatory email was ever sent to activate account. That makes me wonder just what is going on and can I trust them as before account activation they say they need all this private info-phone number, street address and any and all email addresses. And this is before account is active. Why not afterwards? I used a "hide my email" so if my email gets sold I will know who sold it.

Great idea but I second the reviewer who points out that sending a bundle of my email addresses together is actually the opposite of helpful if (when) the receiver combines the addresses into one identity. The solution seems simple though: Send each address independently, as if a separate person is sending, rather than "bundled" as a single request.

This is a great app that saves a lot of time and has no pay walls. I was able to submit over 60 data deletion request through PermissionSlip in less than an hour. PermissionSlip also has an auto delete feature, where it will send deletion request to data brokers who are harvesting and selling your information. Much needed. Highly appreciated.
I shopped around for the same feature through several credit agencies, antivirus companies, and data deletion apps the average price for that service is about 60 bucks a month. Thank you Consumer Reports for bringing this much needed service to the people at no cost.

Updated…I’m able to sign into PermissionSlip now. Seems straightforward. A lot of sites only offer the option to delete your data and account. Finally found an site that provides the option not to sell my data in addition to deleting my account. I’ve made the request not to sell so we’ll see how it goes.

Tried several times today to create an account. PermissionSlip just returned me to the same page. Now I try to create an account this evening and it says there’s already one there with my email. I select the option to reset my password, I get the email. Click the link and reset my password. Try and log in again and “An error has occurred”. Tried the password reset twice now with the same results.

Assuming it works, it’s awesome. I’ve had one company agree to stop selling my info that I didn’t even know had my info, but 3 other sleazeballs flat-out refuse so far: cvs, intuit and yahoo. However, when this happens, PermissionSlip doesn’t give you the option to go back and tell the company to delete your info altogether, or to stop stealing it to begin with, especially without prior permission and compensation. Also, a list of sleazeball companies that refuse the requests should be compiled and made very public in order to try and force them to stop stealing and profiting from the personal information of individuals, which by definition belongs only to each individual. Sleazeball denials so far: versium, walmart, starbucks, kohl’s, merkle, intuit, yahoo and cvs.

While I appreciate all the time and work invested in PermissionSlip and the concept, it just continues to not function in certain areas, even months later. Why aren’t the reported bugs getting fixed? When swiping a company left or right, there are other options displayed on the screen that simply don’t work. You try to Hide a company (because menstrual products are not relevant), but it does not work. You tap the section to go back to the previous item, but it does nothing. Those are just the most obvious ones.

I recently tried the Consumer Reports app, Permission Slip, on my iPhone and it's impressively effective for managing digital privacy. Its user-friendly interface offers to submit consumer rights requests. PermissionSlip runs smoothly, integrating well with iOS, though it could benefit from more personalized recommendations. Overall, it's a vital tool for anyone prioritizing digital privacy, meriting a solid 5/5 stars.

Great idea but cumbersome and not that useful. You have to scroll through lots of website names to find those you use. The first few I identified only had option to delete the entire account, which I don’t want to do on sites I use frequently. I did find some with option to click “don’t sell my data,” but apparently you still can’t stop them from tracking. Back to using incognito mode or clicking on the cookie customization button… I can see PermissionSlip may be useful for deleting specific accounts but not so much for trying to do a comprehensive review of data grabbers.

Great idea for a tool to help consumers manage their personal data. The fatal flaw, however, is providing your email addresses, one time, up front, which Permission Slip uses to send one request per email to each company you choose. I use Apple Hide My Email to create a different email for each company, making it impractical to enter many emails up front. Second, it provides any one company with a compendium of your emails that can then be cross-referenced in a profile. The fix is easy … change Permission Slip to where you only enter relevant email(s) for that vendor. Maybe there’s a primary email entered up front, however, give the user the ability to override it, as well as add any others.

This is such a handy app especially since you can’t even explore a website without adding your email!! This does all the work for you by sending a report, telling the company to track you, and deleting the data they collected.

I am all for the the idea of PermissionSlip. I have previously sent several requests manually to companies, and would love to have something that makes the process easier. However PermissionSlip ’s requests don’t seem to work. I had sent in multiple requests several months ago, of which one was successful, two got responses from the company for more info, and the rest are in infinite pending limbo. Compare this to manual requests which get responses within a day. I’d love it if it worked but so far it seems like placebo.

I had high hopes for PermissionSlip when I first learned about it. But soon I realized that all it’s just useless app containing a contact list for submitting opt out request and do not sell requests. The user has to submit the request themselves, and include a written, hard copy request in some cases. Hopefully, CR will spend some $$$ on programmers to make it functional. When they do, I will reinstall;it. In the interim, I’ll just use the contact info on the websites to submit my request and save my iPad’s disc space for apps that actually perform the task they are supposed to perform.

They are an independent and nonprofit they only ask for donations. They also went through the time to go through the terms and conditions of these companies, so you know exactly what data can be collected from you.

I know it works because occasionally I get a reply email from whatever company had my data!