Business & Tech
Boycott Companies By Using New Smartphone App
With free Buycott, customers can avoid buying from companies they don't want to support — and buy from those they do.
Want to purchase only vegan or cruelty-free products? Want to avoid buying products that put money in the pockets of the right-wing billionaire Koch brothers?
There's an app for that.
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Buycott, Forbes reports, is a free app available for download on iPhone or Android devices — the app allows you to scan the barcode on any product and trace its ownership to the very top corporate parent company. Then you can decide whether it's a product you want to purchase.
You can also join user-created "campaigns" to boycott business practices you don't want to support, such as animal testing, or to support businesses that give money to causes you do, such as marriage equality. A
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Trending campaigns as of Tuesday, March 14, included the following:
- Avoid Koch Industries
- Local & Sustainable Food Initiative
- Demand GMO Labeling
- Equality for LGBTQ
- Cut Funding Ties To ALEC
- Support Prop 37 Donors
- Vegan and Cruelty-Free
- Boycott Nestle Products
The top campaign as of Tuesday afternoon was Demand GMO Labeling, a campaign that includes a list of companies that donated more than $150,000 to oppose mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods in California, with 8,006 members.
Is this an app you would use? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments section.
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