Aim to be the 9%

Data brokers shouldn't exist:

"Thanks to CoreAI, we can do that with 91 percent of adults all around the world,” the CEO brags.

From Gizmodo:
https://gizmodo.com/data-broker-brags-about-having-highly-detailed-personal-information-on-nearly-all-internet-users-2000575762

Comment period for the CFPB's proposed data broker amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act has been extended until April 2, 2025.

You can submit comments here: https://www.regulations.gov/docket/CFPB-2024-0044

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/03/05/2025-03547/protecting-americans-from-harmful-data-broker-practices-regulation-v-extension-of-comment-period
#lawfedi #privacylaw #privacy #FCRA #databrokers

"Tracking and profiling for advertising purposes present significant risks to consumers and society. This is demonstrated by a report commissioned by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv). The advertising industry’s practice of categorising and influencing individuals based on their preferences, behaviours and vulnerabilities leads to manipulation, discrimination and a loss of trust. vzbv calls on the European Commission to ban tracking and profiling for advertising purposes and ensure the protection of digital fundamental rights.

“Every click on the internet is tracked because it supposedly reveals something about us: our preferences, desires and interests. The uncontrolled data collection by the advertising industry poses great risks to consumers and society,” says Michaela Schröder, Head of Consumer Policy at vzbv. “Consumers are powerless against the practices of the advertising industry. Existing laws are not sufficient. A ban on tracking and profiling is the only way to ensure meaningful consumer protection,” Schröder states."

https://www.vzbv.de/en/personalised-advertising-overdue-regulation

"For 37 years, Congress has completely failed to pass another consumer privacy law. Which is how we got here – to this moment where you can target ads to suicidal teens, gambling addicted soldiers in Minuteman silos, grannies with Alzheimer's, and every Congressional staffer on the Hill.

Some people think the problem with mass surveillance is a kind of machine-driven, automated mind-control ray. They believe the self-aggrandizing claims of tech bros to have finally perfected the elusive mind-control ray, using big data and machine learning.

But you don't need to accept these outlandish claims – which come from Big Tech's sales literature, wherein they boast to potential advertisers that surveillance ads are devastatingly effective – to understand how and why this is harmful. If you're struggling with opioid addiction and I target an ad to you for a fake cure or rehab center, I haven't brainwashed you – I've just tricked you. We don't have to believe in mind-control to believe that targeted lies can cause unlimited harms.

And those harms are indeed grave."

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/20/privacy-first-second-third/#malvertising

#Automakers are collecting #sensitive #data, and selling it w/out your permission – Extensive data collection & #privacy #violations also routinely occurs when we use #cars and #trucks [regardless of manufacturer], much if not all of it likely without our knowledge or #consent. This article will inform you about how, where, when and by whom your data is collected, and the many ways in which is it used, including sale by #databrokers #CFPB is now closed - they fought this https://www.llrx.com/2025/01/automakers-are-collecting-sensitive-data-and-selling-it-without-your-permission/

People-search sites represent an immense privacy risk to the majority of Americans. EasyOptOuts is a low-cost online service which automates opt-out requests on your behalf.

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/02/03/easyoptouts-review/

While opting-out of data brokers can be a very manageable task when done manually, many people are still looking for an automated solution.

I think EasyOptOuts is that solution: It works exceptionally well for a fraction of the cost that Optery, Mozilla, or others would charge you. While it might not be perfect, reducing your data exposure by up to 90% for only $20 certainly makes opting-out of the remaining few data brokers a whole lot easier.

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/02/03/easyoptouts-review/

"Some of the world’s most popular apps are likely being co-opted by rogue members of the advertising industry to harvest sensitive location data on a massive scale, with that data ending up with a location data company whose subsidiary has previously sold global location data to US law enforcement.

The thousands of apps, included in hacked files from location data company Gravy Analytics, include everything from games like Candy Crush and dating apps like Tinder to pregnancy tracking and religious prayer apps across both Android and iOS. Because much of the collection is occurring through the advertising ecosystem—not code developed by the app creators themselves—this data collection is likely happening without users’ or even app developers’ knowledge.

“For the first time publicly, we seem to have proof that one of the largest data brokers selling to both commercial and government clients appears to be acquiring their data from the online advertising ‘bid stream,’” rather than code embedded into the apps themselves, Zach Edwards, senior threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Silent Push and who has followed the location data industry closely, tells 404 Media after reviewing some of the data."

https://www.wired.com/story/gravy-location-data-app-leak-rtb/

"Without federal legislative action, many US states are taking privacy matters into their own hands.

In 2025, eight new state privacy laws will take effect, making a total of 25 around the country. A number of other states—like Vermont and Massachusetts—are considering passing their own privacy bills next year, and such laws could, in theory, force national legislation, says Woodrow Hartzog, a technology law scholar at Boston University School of Law. “Right now, the statutes are all similar enough that the compliance cost is perhaps expensive but manageable,” he explains. But if one state passed a law that was different enough from the others, a national law could be the only way to resolve the conflict. Additionally, four states—California, Texas, Vermont, and Oregon—already have specific laws regulating data brokers, including the requirement that they register with the state.

Along with new laws, says Justin Brookman, the director of technology policy at Consumer Reports, comes the possibility that “we can put some more teeth on these laws.”

Brookman points to Texas, where some of the most aggressive enforcement action at the state level has taken place under its Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton. Even before the state’s new consumer privacy bill went into effect in July, Paxton announced the creation of a special task force focused on enforcing the state’s privacy laws. He has since targeted a number of data brokers—including National Public Data, which exposed millions of sensitive customer records in a data breach in August, as well as companies that sell to them, like Sirius XM."

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/07/1109301/privacy-protection-data-brokers-personal-information/

"A global spy tool exposed the locations of billions of people to anyone willing to pay. A Catholic group bought location data about gay dating app users in an effort to out gay priests. A location data broker sold lists of people who attended political protests.

What do these privacy violations have in common? They share a source of data that’s shockingly pervasive and unregulated: the technology powering nearly every ad you see online.

Each time you see a targeted ad, your personal information is exposed to thousands of advertisers and data brokers through a process called “real-time bidding” (RTB). This process does more than deliver ads—it fuels government surveillance, poses national security risks, and gives data brokers easy access to your online activity. RTB might be the most privacy-invasive surveillance system that you’ve never heard of."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/online-behavioral-ads-fuel-surveillance-industry-heres-how

Well this is horrific. Location Data Firm Offers to Help Cops Track Targets via Doctor Visits - https://www.404media.co/location-data-firm-offers-to-help-cops-track-targets-via-doctor-visits/

"Fog Data Science is a location tracking company that takes data harvested from smartphones and makes it accessible to cops. A document obtained by 404 Media shows the company explicitly says it will use doctors visits to unmask a target if needed."

Feds Propose Crackdown on Data Brokers Selling Sensitive Personal Information

New rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and settlements from the Federal Trade Commission would limit what information data brokers can sell and who they can sell it to.

https://gizmodo.com/feds-propose-crackdown-on-data-brokers-selling-sensitive-personal-information-2000533435

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed a new rule that would block data brokers from selling personal and financial information on Americans, including their Social Security numbers and phone numbers, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

In proposing the new rules, months after President Biden signed an executive order to curb the sale of Americans’ private data, the U.S. consumer protection agency said it aims to “rein in” data brokers who sidestep federal law by claiming that they are not subject to the FCRA’s legal provisions.

The CFPB’s director, Rohit Chopra, told reporters on a call Monday that the proposed rule would “curtail the widespread evasion” of the FCRA, which is the federal privacy law that protects personal data collected by consumer reporting agencies, like credit bureaus and tenant screening companies. The rule would also “make it clear that many of these data brokers, like credit bureaus and background check companies, are subject to federal protection under the FCRA.”"

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/03/us-agency-proposes-new-rule-blocking-data-brokers-from-selling-americans-sensitive-personal-data/

"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced sweeping action against some of the most important companies in the location data industry on Tuesday, including those that power surveillance tools used by a wide spread of U.S. law enforcement agencies and demanding they delete data related to certain sensitive areas like health clinics and places of worship.

Venntel, through its parent company Gravy Analytics, takes location data from smartphones, either through ordinary apps installed on them or through the advertising ecosystem, and then provides that data feed to other companies who sell location tracking technology to the government or sells the data directly itself. Venntel is the company that provides the underlying data for a variety of other government contractors and surveillance tools, including Locate X. 404 Media and a group of other journalists recently revealed Locate X could be used to pinpoint phones that visited abortion clinics.

The FTC says in a proposed order that Gravy and Venntel will be banned from selling, disclosing, or using sensitive location data, except in “limited circumstances” involving national security or law enforcement."

#USA #FTC #LocationData #Venntel #Gravy #DataBrokers #DataBrokerage #DataProtection #Privacy #Surveillance

https://www.404media.co/ftc-bans-location-data-company-that-powers-the-surveillance-ecosystem/

"If you voted in the U.S. presidential election yesterday in which Donald Trump won comfortably, or a previous election, a website powered by a right-wing group is probably doxing you. VoteRef makes it trivial for anyone to search the name, physical address, age, party affiliation, and whether someone voted that year for people living in most states instantly and for free. This can include ordinary citizens, celebrities, domestic abuse survivors, and many other people.

Voting rolls are public records, and ways to more readily access them are not new. But during a time of intense division, political violence, or even the broader threat of data being used to dox or harass anyone, sites like VoteRef turn a vital part of the democratic process—simply voting—into a security and privacy threat.

“Digitizing and aggregating data meaningfully changes the privacy context and the risks to people. Your municipal government storing your marriage certificate and voter information in some basement office filing cabinet is not even remotely the same as a private company digitizing all the data, labeling it, piling it all together, making it searchable,” Justin Sherman, a Duke professor who studies data brokers, told 404 Media in an email."

https://www.404media.co/voted-in-america-this-site-doxed-you/

"A leading political data company is selling a voter database that identifies Americans based on their support for right-wing militias, the QAnon conspiracy theory and the January 6 insurrection — a new twist in campaign technology that some experts think could carry national security risks.

The company, L2 Data, collects a wide net of information about voter preferences on issues such as defense, spending and the economy. But unlike other data companies, L2 also measures or estimates voters’ support for the most divisive and potentially threatening threads of the extreme right.

L2 says it developed its dataset by surveying some voters and then extrapolating the probable views of a wider group with similar preferences and behavior from voter records and consumer habits.

Those predictions are part of a larger dataset that included a broad range of views held by both the right and left, on issues such as climate change, race and civil liberties.

The firm sells that broad set of information to a range of politicians and parties: Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), and PACs for both Democrats and Republicans have bought its data, according to FEC filings."

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/30/data-voters-political-violence-00186132