information company arescooping upenormous amountsof information about almost every American . They sell information about whether you ’re pregnant or divorced or examine to lose weight , about how rich you are and what kinds of railcar you have .
regulator and some in Congress have been taking a closer face at these so - address data brokers — and are start out to push the companies to give consumersmore information and controlover what happens to their datum .
But many people still do n’t even know thatdata brokers exist .
Here ’s a facial expression at what we have sex about the consumer information diligence .
How much do these companies know about individual people ?
They bulge out with the basics , like names , addresses and contact information , and add on demographics , like age , race , occupation and “ education level , ” consort to consumer data firm Acxiom’soverview of its various categories .
But that ’s just the beginning : The company collect lists of people experiencing “ life - event triggers ” like bugger off married , buy a base , sending a kid to college — or even aim divorced .
Credit reporting giantExperianhas a separatemarketing services variance , which sells lists of “ names of expectant parents and families with newborns ” that are “ update weekly . ”
The companies also amass data about your rocking horse and many of the purchases you make . Want to buy a list of people whoread romance novels?Epsiloncan sell you that , as well as a list of multitude who donate tointernational aid charities .
A subsidiary of credit entry reporting party Equifax evencollects detailed wage and paystub informationfor roughly38 percentof employed Americans , as NBC news report . As part of handling employee confirmation requests , the company gets the entropy directly from employer .
Equifax enjoin in a statement that the data is only sold to customers “ who have been verified through a elaborated credentialing process . ” It tote up that if a mortgage company or other lender wants to get at information about your salary , they must obtain your permission to do so .
Of course , data companies typically do n’t have all of this information on any one person . As Acxiom bill in its overview , “ No individual criminal record ever bear all the possible data . ” And some of the data these troupe sell is really just a guess about your background or preferences , based on the characteristic of your neighborhood , or other people in a standardised age or demographic group .
Where are they getting all this info ?
The stores where you denounce trade it to them .
Datalogix , for representative , which collects entropy fromstore trueness add-in , says it has info on more than $ 1 trillion in consumer expenditure “ across 1400 leading brand . ” It does n’t say which 1 . ( Datalogix did not respond to our petition for input . )
data point company usuallyrefuse to sayexactly what companies deal them entropy , citing competitive reasons . And retailers also do n’t make it soft for you to obtain out whether they ’re selling your information .
But thanks toCalifornia ’s “ radiate the Light ” law , researchers at U.C. Berkeley were able to get a small coup d’oeil ofhow companies betray or share your information . Thestudyrecruited voluntary to necessitate more than 80 company how the unpaid worker ’ information was being shared .
Only two companies actually respond with details about how volunteers ’ data had been shared . Upscale furniture store Restoration Hardware tell that it had sent “ your name , address and what you purchase ” to seven other companies , include a data “ cooperative ” that let retail merchant topool data about customer transactions , and another company that later becamepart of Datalogix . ( Restoration Hardware has n’t respond to our request for comment . )
Walt Disney also respond and distinguish share even more entropy : not just a person ’s name and savoir-faire and what they purchase , but their age , military control , and the phone number , age and gender of their child . It listed companies that received data point , among them companies own by Disney , like ABC and ESPN , as well as others , including Honda , HarperCollins Publishing , Almay cosmetic , and yogurt company Dannon .
But Disney spokeswoman Zenia Mucha say that Disney ’s letter , sent in 2007 , “ was n’t clear ” about how the datum was actually share with unlike companies on the lean . Outside companies like Honda only received personal information as part of a competition , sweepstakes , or other joint promotion that they had done with Disney , Mucha said . The data was shared “ for the fulfilment of that contest pillage , not for their own merchandising purposes . ”
Where else do data brokers get information about me ?
Government records and other publicly available info , including some sources that may storm you . Your Department of State Department of Motor Vehicles , for case , may betray personal data — like your name , reference , and the character of vehicles you own — to information companies , although only for certain permit purposes , includingidentify confirmation .
Public voting phonograph recording , which admit information about your political party registration and how often you vote , can also bebought and sold for commercial-grade purposesin some states .
Are there point of accumulation to the kinds of information these caller can buy and sell ?
Yes , sure form of sensitive datum are protected — but much of your information can be bought and sold without any input from you .
Union natural law protects theconfidentiality of your medical recordsand your conversations with your doctor . There are also strict formula regarding the sales agreement of data used to determineyour acknowledgment - worthiness , or your eligibility for usage , insurance and housing . For instance , consumer have the right to view and castigate their own credit reports , and likely employer have to require for your consent before they buy a cite report about you .
Other than certain variety of protect data point — including aesculapian records and data used for recognition reports — consumers have no effectual right to control or even supervise how information about them is bought and sold . As the FTC notes , “ There areno current lawsrequiring data point brokers to defend the concealment of consumer data unless they use that data for credit , employment , policy , lodging , or other alike intention . ”
So they do n’t trade information about my wellness ?
Actually , they do .
Data companies can capture information about your “ stake ” in certain wellness condition based on what you grease one’s palms — or what you search for online . Datalogix has lists of people separate as“allergy sufferer ” and “ dieter . ”Acxiom sells data on whether an individual has an “ on-line search propensity ” for a sure “ ill or prescription . ”
Consumer data is also get to be used to evaluate whether you ’re making healthy choices .
Onehealth insurance companyrecently purchase data on more than three million multitude ’s consumer purchases for flaghealth - relate actions , like buy plus - sized clothing , the Wall Street Journal reported . ( The company purchase purchasing information for current program member , not as part of screening people for potential coverage . )
Spokeswoman Michelle Douglas say that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina would use the data to aim loose programming offers to their customers .
Douglas suggest that it might be more worthful for companies to use consumer information “ to determine way to aid me improve my health ” rather than “ to buy my data to send me pre - pay reference card program or catalogs full of stuff they want me to bribe . ”
Do company collect information about my societal medium profile and what I do online ?
Yes .
As wehighlighted last twelvemonth , some datum companies enter — and then resell — all form of information you carry online , including your projection screen names , website addresses , interests , hometown and professional story , and how many friends or followers you have .
Acxiom said it collects information aboutwhich social media sitesindividual masses expend , and “ whether they are a cloggy or a light user , ” but that they do not collect information about “ individual bill ” or your “ lists of friends . ”
More traditional consumer data can also be link with information about what you do online . Datalogix , the party that collects loyalty card data point , has partnered with Facebook to go after whether Facebook users who see advertising for certain productsactually end up buying them at local stores , as the Financial Times reported last twelvemonth .
Is there a way to chance out on the nose what these information party know about me ?
Not really .
You have the right hand to review and correct your credit report . But with merchandising data , there ’s often no way to know on the dot what selective information is seize to your name — or whether it ’s accurate .
Most companies offer , at sound , a fond characterisation .
While Acxiom lets consumersreview some of the informationthe companionship sells about them , New York Times reporter Natasha Singerdiscovered this summerthat only a splinter of information is share , including whether you have a prison record or failure filing .
When Singer finally receive her written report , all it included was arecord of her residential address .
Some companies do extend more access . A spokeswoman for Epsilon said it give up consumer to review “ eminent level information ” about their datum — like whether or not you ’re list as make a purchase in the “ home plate furnishings ” category . ( Requests to review this info be $ 5 and can only be madeby postal chain mail . )
RapLeaf , a caller that advertize that it has “ real - time data point ” on80 percent of U.S. email address , says that it gives client “ entire controlover the data we have on you , ” and countenance them to review and edit out the categories ( like “ estimate household income ” and “ Likely Political Contributor to Republicans ” ) that RapLeaf has connected with their e-mail speech .
How do I know when someone has purchased data about me ?
Most of the time , you do n’t .
When you ’re check up on out at a memory board and a teller asks you for your Zip computer code , the store is n’t just have that single piece of information . Acxiom and other information companies offer services that leave depot to use your Zip computer code and the name on your reference bill of fare topinpoint your home address — without asking you for it directly .
Is there any way to barricade the companies from collecting and portion out information about me ?
Yes , but it would require a whole lot of body of work .
Many data brokers offer consumer the chance to “ choose out ” of being included in their database , or at least fromreceiving publicizing enabled by that troupe . Rapleaf , for instance , has a “ lasting opt - out ” that “ deletes informationassociated with your email address from the Rapleaf database . ”
But to actually opt - out efficaciously , you postulate to bed about all the dissimilar data brokers and where to find their opt - outs . Most consumers , of course , do n’t have that information .
In their privacy composition last year , the FTC paint a picture that information agent should createa centralized websitethat would make it easier for consumers to learn about the existence of these companies and their rights regarding the data they collect .
How many hoi polloi do these companies have data on ?
Basically everyone in the U.S. and many beyond it . Acxiom , recentlyprofiled by the New York Times , say it has information on500 million masses worldwide , include “ nearly every U.S. consumer . ”
After the 9/11 attacks , CNN reported , Acxiom was able to locate11 of the 19 hijackers in its database .
How is all of this data point actually used ?
Mostly to betray you stuff . Companies want to grease one’s palms list of people who might be concerned in what they ’re selling — and also need to learn more about their current customers .
They also sell their information for other intent , including identicalness verification , fraud bar and background signal checks .
If Modern privateness laws are passed , will they include the right field to see what data these companies have pile up about me ?
Unlikely .
In a report on privacy last year , the Federal Trade Commission urge thatCongress pass legislation“that would provide consumer with access to selective information about them held by a data broker . ” President Barack Obama has also propose aConsumer Privacy Bill of Rightsthat would give consumer the right wing to access and correct certain information about them .
But this belike wo n’t admit access to marketing data , which the Federal Trade Commission deal less raw than data used for credit paper or identity verification .
In terms of marketing data , “ we think at the very least consumers should have access to the cosmopolitan categories of data the troupe have about consumers , ” said Maneesha Mithal of the FTC ’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection .
datum companies have also tug back against the idea of open up merchandising profile for individual consumers ’ inspection .
Even if there were errors in your marketing data profile , “ the unfit thing that could encounter is that you get an advertising offer that is n’t relevant to you , ” say Rachel Thomas , the vice president of political science affairs at the Direct Marketing Association .
“ The shammer and security risks that you persist by opening up those files is higher than any potential damage that could chance to the consumer , ” Thomas allege .
Original icon credit : Shutterstock / klimo
ProPublica is an independent , non - profit newsroom that produces investigatory news media in the public pastime .
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