So much of what you do every day generates data — your
loyalty card, your apps, your groceries. And once it’s
collected, it doesn’t stay with the company you gave it to.
Data brokers buy it and combine it into a profile of you. Your data
is their product — and you’ve never even heard of them.
From that data, brokers generate thousands of inferences about you:
your income, your housing, even your health. These inferences are
guesses, and they’re often wrong — but they’re
packaged and sold as fact.
The companies you shop with sell your information to data brokers
— who resell your profile to insurers setting your rates,
retailers deciding what price you see at checkout, and government
agencies surveilling your neighbors. ICE has bought data broker
profiles to access personal and location information it would
otherwise need a warrant to obtain.
What do they know about you? Is it even correct? You have no way to
know — unless you request your data.
“Who cares about data privacy? My data is probably already all over
the internet, and I’ve got nothing to hide anyway!” If you’ve ever
said (or even thought) something like that last sentence, we’ve got a
story for you! Companies have been collecting your data since before
you probably even understood the concept of privacy. Companies can use
your data against you in subtle, but material ways.
Some might already have.
Data brokers are companies that collect, aggregate, and sell personal
information about you even if you don’t have a direct relationship
with them. Data brokers compile this data into a detailed profile that
then gets sold to retailers, insurance companies, even to the
government. Here's something they don't advertise: in a growing number of states, you have the legal right to see the data companies hold on you, ask them to delete it, and tell them to stop selling it. You just have to ask and we can show you how.
One way that we've seen our data be weaponized against us is when companies set prices we see at check out based on what they think they know about our habits, or predilections, or our bank accounts. This is practice is called Surveillance Pricing, and Gen-Z for Change and Consumer Reports are working hard to make it not just creepy, but also against the law.
