Moves breaks its promise and changes its privacy policy

11 days after being acquired by Facebook, and assuring users it wouldn’t change its privacy policy, our favourite fitness-tracking app, Moves, has done exactly that – changed its privacy policy to allow broader sharing of user data.

On Friday, Moves’s privacy policy still read that the company did not “disclose an individual user’s data to third parties,” without a user’s consent, unless compelled by law enforcement.

However, yesterday, the policy was changed, without any warning, to state: “We may share information, including personally identifying information, with our Affiliates (companies that are part of our corporate groups of companies, including but not limited to Facebook) to help provide, understand, and improve our Services.”

When you open the app on your phone now, a message will come up saying: “We have updated our Terms and Privacy Policy. By continuing to use Moves you agree to the updates.” It then informs users on how to delete the app and your previous data, along with the option to accept the changes.

The policy change highlights a tricky subject when Facebook acquires companies. Facebook taps the information its users post to target ads to them. But some of the companies it acquires have made promises not to employ user data for ads, or to share data at all.

We’re really hoping this privacy policy change won’t affect what is a great, and really useful, app, but only time will tell.