From: NBC News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Companies known as data brokers collect and sell information about “nearly all” U.S. consumers, drawing potentially harmful conclusions about them largely without their knowledge, U.S. regulators said on Tuesday.
The Federal Trade Commission called on Congress to pass legislation that would enable consumers to learn more easily how data brokers collect, use and sell their data, to correct it or to opt out of the process, especially when it comes to sensitive information such as about their health status.
The commission’s report relied on information shared by nine data broker companies, which do not interact directly with consumers but collect data to inform other companies’ marketing efforts, to verify consumers’ identity or to detect fraud.
The companies were Acxiom Crop, Corelogic Inc, Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, PeekYou, Rapleaf, and Recorded Future.
“You may not know them, but data brokers know you. They know where you live, what you buy, your income, your ethnicity, how old your kids are, your health conditions, and your interests and hobbies,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.
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