Etsy, Facebook, Amazon Reviews

i think i'm in the same boat as everyone else. reviews are now locked behind a hefty paywall. for me, it's not worth the subscription price but that does mean i will lose access to all previous reviews and will have to start over again. i hope they will reconsider.

I have used Kudobuzz for the past 4 years to collect customer reviews, but since the free plan has been retired a few days ago, I have now completely lost access to ALL of the reviews I have collected over those 4 years unless I pay for a subscription.

Even more concerning, I am also unable to stop Kudobuzz's automated review-request emails being sent to my customers unless I pay for a subscription - essentially, I am being asked to pay for the privilege of STOPPING them from contacting my customers.

When I contacted Kudobuzz, their support team told me:

“There's no way to temporarily access your account or retrieve individual reviews without upgrading. The only way to stop emails or access your reviews is to subscribe to the paid plan.”

I contacted Shopify about this, and they confirmed that an app should not continue emailing customers after uninstall using data obtained through Shopify. Shopify also said that if Kudobuzz isn't compliant with Shopify's mandatory data-erasure request and that if they continue sending emails after this, it's a breach UK GDPR and I will be within my right to report them to the ICO if they do not comply.

I find this extremely concerning and disappointing. After using Kudobuzz for four years, I should not have to pay a subscription simply to access the reviews I have already collected, or to STOP a third-party service from contacting my customers.

If you have used Kudobuzz, I would strongly recommend reviewing what access they have to your customer data and what happens if you stop using the service.

This app exposes customer email addresses in your website's page source code in a manner easily accessible to automated scrapers. If you are subject to GDPR or any other data protection legislation, do not install this app.

I had to spend several hours informing affected customers and consulting with the ICO to ensure I was meeting my legal obligations as a data handler, which was incredibly embarrassing and upsetting. Fortunately no further action was required, but the situation should never have arisen in the first place.

The issue is a fundamental flaw in how the app handles customer data, not an isolated incident, as I have identified the same problem across multiple stores using Kudobuzz. It should be a straightforward fix for any competent developer, but having raised this directly with Kudobuzz I received no response whatsoever. Kudobuzz's handling of this, both the original data flaw and their complete silence when contacted, has resulted in this review. Totally unacceptable breach of merchant trust.

EDIT 22/7: It appears Kudobuzz now have decided to be dishonest about the reason email addresses were published publicly while using the app. There was absolutely no toggle or setting to "give permission" to display customer email addresses publicly, nor would I ever have set the app up in such a way. This was the very first thing I checked (and double checked) before making my complaint to them (which was ignored). If people want to read their original reply to my review, here it is:

"The previous reply has been removed from the Shopify App Store. Here's the old reply:
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we sincerely apologize for the concern this caused.

We take data privacy and security very seriously. After investigating, we identified and resolved the issue that was affecting email visibility in certain cases. The matter has now been addressed.

We understand how important trust is when it comes to handling customer data, and we regret any frustration this may have caused. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out directly. We're here to help.

Best,
The Kudobuzz Team"