The Data Brokers: Selling your personal information

[DonViejo]

Steve Kroft investigates the multibillion dollar industry that collects, analyzes and sells the personal information of millions of Americans with virtually no oversight

Over the past six months or so, a huge amount of attention has been paid to government snooping, and the bulk collection and storage of vast amounts of raw data in the name of national security. What most of you don't know, or are just beginning to realize, is that a much greater and more immediate threat to your privacy is coming from thousands of companies you've probably never heard of, in the name of commerce.

They're called data brokers, and they are collecting, analyzing and packaging some of our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodity...to each other, to advertisers, even the government, often without our direct knowledge. Much of this is the kind of harmless consumer marketing that's been going on for decades. What's changed is the volume and nature of the data being mined from the Internet and our mobile devices, and the growth of a multibillion dollar industry that operates in the shadows with virtually no oversight.

Companies and marketing firms have been gathering information about customers and potential customers for years, collecting their names and addresses, tracking credit card purchases, and asking them to fill out questionnaires, so they can offer discounts and send catalogues. But today we are giving up more and more private information online without knowing that it's being harvested and personalized and sold to lots of different people...our likes and dislikes, our closest friends, our bad habits, even your daily movements, both on and offline. Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill says we have lost control of our most personal information.

Steve Kroft: Are people putting this together and making dossiers?

Julie Brill: Absolutely.

Steve Kroft: With names attached to it? With personal identification?

more
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-data-brokers-selling-your-personal-information/

[jsr]

1. +1

[adirondacker]

2. I have a WAY bigger problem with this, than the government knowing my info.

This should have been a topic DuJour for the last decade.

[LiberalEsto]

3. I agree with you completely nt

[okaawhatever]

4. Absolutely. One thing that wasn't discussed during the NSA debates was how the gov't or NSA

could buy nearly as much info (maybe more) than they could obtain through their own channels.

[Blue_Tires]

6. I have a problem with both

I'm just tired of so much national discussion of one while turning a blind eye to the other...

Even Snowden brushed it off as a non-issue(!) when asked about it at SXSW today...One more statement for the "things he should get raked over the coals for" -pile, but he's he golden boy for millions and can do no wrong...

[JoeyT]

8. I oppose both. n/t

[SomethingFishy]

9. There is a difference here..

Not that it's right or wrong but you allow the data mining. Every time you click "accept" on an end user agreement you are telling whoever that they are allowed to mine your data.

[Earth_First]

10. Yep. Because when I click on the End User Agreement when I pay my bills...

I should expect that.

Or should I just stop paying my bills and have a Collections Agency collect and disseminate the information?



It's a vicious cycle.

[SomethingFishy]

11. I don't disagree...

and I don't like it. But it is what it is.

And as devil's advocate I would say you can still pay your bills with checks by snail mail.

What bothers me about this is that corporations are doing this because they think we are stupid and are trying to sell us something. I get that, we are a greedy money worshipping nation. However the government does it because it doesn't trust it's citizens and wants to keep an eye on them.

[Earth_First]

12. My apologies...

...I'm not trying to snip at you over this.

Just overall fed up with all of it.

Be well...

[SomethingFishy]

13. No need...

I didn't take it wrong And that frustration level is everywhere...

[Zorra]

5. The fact that our government ever let this happen speaks volumes about

its real priorities.

Money trumps human rights and well being yet again.

[dickthegrouch]

7. Every time that Privacy Practices notice gets sent out I cringe

All my financial organizations want to share my info with their business partners, affiliates, etc. etc and many of them are telling me whether I can opt-out or not in several major categories.

We've lost the battle, and the war, but it would have been so much simpler if the businesses had been compelled to ask us to opt in in the first place.

I want a tattoo that shuts down any Google glass (or equivalent) device in sight.

And these recent databases of private surveillance cameras available to Law Enforcement, when investigating crimes, bother me a lot too. If LE remembered that one is INNOCENT until proven guilty, it might be less bothersome. However, if they want to treat me as if I were suspect just because I walked in front of a private camera, they'd better be prepared for some major pushback.