Skip to content


A Realistic View of What Data Brokers Actually Know About You

You probably won’t even recognize most of the names of the companies involved:

A Realistic View of What Data Brokers Actually Know About You

http://lifehacker.com/5989337/a-realistic-view-of-what-data-brokers-actually-know-about-you

“There are the firms and sites that compile public data about you and offer it up to anyone, and then there are the data brokers quietly sketching a picture of you from your purchases and behaviors. You should know what they know about you.

Non-profit journalism center ProPublica details the business and craft of data brokering, in which layer upon layer of information is compiled to sell to marketing firms. Often times the profiles are unnamed, but if you’re wondering why your junk mail and back-of-receipt coupons seem so specific lately, it’s because you’re not that hard to figure out.”

Everything We Know About What Data Brokers Know About You

http://www.propublica.org/article/everything-we-know-about-what-data-brokers-know-about-you

“Data companies are scooping up [1] enormous amounts [2] of information about almost every American. They sell information about whether you’re pregnant or divorced or trying to lose weight, about how rich you are and what kinds of cars you have.”

Follow the link for answers to these questions.  You probably won’t like the answers . . .

How much do these companies know about individual people?

Where are they getting all this info?

Where else do data brokers get information about me?

Are there limits to the kinds of data these companies can buy and sell?

So they don’t sell information about my health?

Do companies collect information about my social media profiles and what I do online?

Is there a way to find out exactly what these data companies know about me?

How do I know when someone has purchased data about me?

How many people do these companies have information on?

How is all of this data actually used?

If new privacy laws are passed, will they include the right to see what data these companies have collected about me?

Stephen

 

0 Shares

Posted on: March 27, 2013, 6:43 am Category: Uncategorized

6 Responses

Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.

Continuing the Discussion