Website stockpiles personal information for marketing

[mfcorey1]

ATLANTA —

Your personal information is no longer your private information.

Marketing companies are building profiles on people, tracking the cost your home, how many kids you have and how much you spend online.

For decades companies have been gathering data on consumers, but marketing technology firm Acxiom is now letting people see what it knows.

On the website AboutTheData.com, you can type in your name, address, birthday and the last four digits of your social security number to reveal a trove of personal information that has been collected.

The website lists data on you, your home, your car, your income, your spending, and even your interests.

Author Jim Kelly sat down with Channel 2’s John Bachman to take a look at his profile on the website.

“They know my salary range. Wow. They know my investing. Wow,” Kelly said. “Average spent for online purchases, total dollars spent. Wow.”

Kelly said he isn’t surprised the information is out there, but he is surprised how easy it was to find all in one place.

“It’s disturbing. What I don’t like about it is – where does it stop?” Kelly said. “It’s going to make people start talking about, ‘What are the limits?’ How far can you take this before enough people say, ‘Look, you gotta stop this’?”

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/online/website-stockpiles-personal-information-marketing/nbcp6/

[arcane1]

1. Interesting. There's an "opt out" link at the bottom of the page. I just might do so.

[MADem]

2. And the website "About the Data" will sell the info you give them!

On the website AboutTheData.com, you can type in your name, address, birthday and the last four digits of your social security number to reveal a trove of personal information that has been collected.

The only thing I find shocking is that people are just now, in the 21st Century, figuring this shit out.

I used to have a cat. That cat has been dead for nearly 15 years. That damn cat is STILL getting junk mail at my house, everything from credit card offers to investment opportunities to bulk discount coupons, because I used that cat's name for EVERYTHING.

Put your shit out there, and you're gonna get shit back--it's like a tide, it goes in and out.

[salib]

3. I would NOT enter that kind of info into ANY website

That would make a great phishing site

[NightWatcher]

7. give me your bank account number and social security number

and I'll tell you how much money you had in your accounts...yesterday.

Anybody that provides that info is just begging for it to be used nefariously. If the website didn't know it, they do now.

[Aerows]

4. LOL they have mine totally wrong

They list me as married and that I just had a child. LMAO. It listed a car I don't own and have never owned, got my age completely wrong (I'm supposedly 58 - but just had a child LOL), and none of the other stuff even remotely matches. It's kind of hilarious.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. According to that site

I am an Aisian Republican...despite my Anglo/Irish full name.
who knew?

think I will go back in and change my sex......

[hollysmom]

5. once you give them your information though

they have it to target you and you have to install and opt out cookie.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. The site has old and inaccurate data..

It seems once they get some data, they do not change it..even if you move.
So I changed my sex for them...hee hee...and did not correct the rest of the mistakes they made.
The shopping/credit card data is apparently very old.