What Walgreens does with your data

What it collects and does with your data

• Privacy policy (California section) says Walgreens shared for secondary purposes, which may constitute a 'sale' or 'sharing', categories including identifiers, commercial information, inferences, and sensitive personal information 'concerning your health, which may include certain health-related retail product purchases.'
• Categories of third parties to which Walgreens may sell or share that data: Online Advertising Networks, Marketing Companies, Financial Services Partners, and Social Media Companies.
• Policy says Walgreens uses cameras in and around stores for security and for operational purposes such as measuring traffic patterns and tracking in-stock levels.
• Policy says the app can use Bluetooth to determine a device's in-store location, and collects precise location via GPS, cell towers, WiFi, beacons, Bluetooth, and NFC.
• Browser-level opt-outs are based on the unique browser and device; a separate web form or phone call is offered.
• The Markup and KFF Health News found Walgreens' site still sent Pinterest information about sensitive items (including Plan B and HIV tests) added to cart; Walgreens then said it would stop sharing browsing data related to reproductive health and HIV testing.
• Cooler Screens smart doors (screens replacing cooler glass) were fully removed from Walgreens stores by August 2024 amid a $200M contract dispute between the two companies.
• PolitiFact: Cooler Screens doors at Walgreens monitor shoppers with the aim of selling them targeted products and do not detect personally identifiable information.
• Walgreens became a private company after its acquisition by Sycamore Partners closed in August 2025.

Sensitive data

• health/pharmacy (health-related retail purchases disclosed as sold/shared)
• precise location
• in-store Bluetooth location
• in-store cameras (traffic measurement)
• payment

Enforcement and litigation

3 matters in the research. Where the research says alleged, pending, or settled without admitting wrongdoing, so does this page.

• Stipulated judgment with 42 California district attorneys and two city attorneys over unlawful disposal of hazardous waste and of confidential patient information (prescription records, pill bottles) in store dumpsters. Most of the matter concerned hazardous waste. Settled. Amount: $16.57 million.
• Follow-on $3.5M stipulated judgment (Alameda County) over hazardous waste disposal and violations of the 2012 injunction. Environmental; listed for context, not scored. Amount: $3.5 million.
• Cooler Screens v. Walgreens: $200M contract suit by the smart-door vendor (commercial dispute, not privacy enforcement); Walgreens countersued. Not resolved as of the latest report found.

Who else holds your data

Organizations holding a copy of your data, as the research counts them: at least 6. Floor: Walgreens, Sycamore Partners (owner), and at least one organization in each of the 4 disclosed sale/share recipient categories. Real count is higher and not disclosed.

Third parties: 4 disclosed recipient categories. Named: Pinterest (Markup 2023 finding). 4 = categories that receive data disclosed as a sale/share under California law. Service-provider and affiliate categories not counted.

Data brokers linked to Walgreens

None. The research documents no flow between Walgreens and a data broker.

Data practices score

13 of 15. Five components, each 0 to 3. How the score works

Sells or shares

3

Enforcement

3

Retail media scale

2

Sensitive data

3

Opt-out friction

2

Estimated emissions for one person

Research gaps

• WAG ad revenue not disclosed; only a low-confidence vendor-blog estimate found.
• No member count after 2024 (company went private).
• No Walgreens-specific email frequency data.
• A classaction.org page on a Walgreens Meta Pixel suit reads as an investigation; not treated as a filed case.