What Walmart does with your data

What it collects and does with your data

• Privacy notice CCPA chart lists identifiers, device IDs, internet activity, commercial information, and demographic information as 'Sold or Shared' to vendors and to 'business partners, including those that receive data for their own independent use.'
• Privacy notice says Walmart may offer 'insights' derived from many customers' shopping history to suppliers and 'Walmart may receive payment for these insights.'
• Privacy notice lists biometric information it may collect as 'voice prints, imagery of the iris or retina, face geometry, and palm prints or fingerprints,' and discloses Automated License Plate Readers on its properties.
• Walmart and VIZIO connect CTV ad engagement to purchases via closed-loop attribution and are rolling out Walmart account login on new VIZIO OS and onn TVs.
• Global advertising business grew 46% to nearly $6.4B in FY2026 including VIZIO; Walmart Connect US grew 41% in Q4.

Sensitive data

• biometrics disclosed in policy (voiceprints, face geometry, iris or retina, palm or fingerprints)
• in-store cameras
• license plates (ALPR)
• TV viewing data (VIZIO ACR)
• precise location (with consent)
• pharmacy and health
• payment

Enforcement and litigation

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

• FTC and 11 states v. Walmart (Spark Driver): alleged deceptive earnings claims to delivery drivers. Walmart agreed to a $100M judgment. Amount: $100 million.
• FTC v. Walmart (money transfers): alleged Walmart let scammers use its money transfer services. Settled for $10M without admitting wrongdoing. Amount: $10 million.
• VIZIO (acquired by Walmart Dec. 2024) remains under a stipulated FTC and New Jersey AG order until 2037 over collection of TV viewing data; original 2017 settlement was $2.2M. Amount: $2.2 million.
• Luthe v. Walmart (BIPA): alleged in-store facial recognition matched against Clearview AI. Walmart denied being a Clearview client. Voluntarily dismissed without prejudice 2022-11-02.
• Proposed Illinois BIPA class action (Amber Smith) alleging Walmart's AI phone system collected callers' voiceprints. Pending.

Who else holds your data

Organizations holding a copy of your data, as the research counts them: at least 12. Lower bound: one organization per disclosed recipient category (12). Excludes the unknown number of suppliers who buy aggregated insights.

Third parties: 12 disclosed recipient categories. Named: Sam's Club, One Finance, VIZIO, Google Analytics. Categories counted: corporate family, business-operations vendors, marketplace and direct-to-customer companies, advertisers, publishers, social media platforms, ad tech providers, data technology vendors, measurement and analytics vendors, suppliers (paid insights), legal/safety, business transfers.

Data brokers linked to Walmart

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

Data practices score

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

Sells or shares

3

Enforcement

3

Retail media scale

3

Sensitive data

3

Opt-out friction

2

Estimated emissions for one person

Research gaps

• No unique annual customer count; 280M is weekly visits.
• Walmart+ membership is an analyst estimate.
• Walmart Connect US revenue alone not disclosed for FY2026.
• EmailTooltester study (2022 data) gives only an upper bound: Walmart was not in its top-10 senders (under 142 emails in 219 days).