“Regulators. We regulate any stealin’ of his property“, is the opening line of the hit 1994 hip-hop classic, “Regulate” by Warren G ft. Nate Dogg. Okay, the song itself doesn’t have anything to do with regulating something per se, but it does seem fitting for today’s topic of data brokers.
Data Broker Basics
So what are data brokers? AVG defines it as, “companies that collect, bundle, and sell your information to third parties interested in targeting you as a consumer, a buyer, and sometimes a private citizen.” Data brokers essentially know your information like your name, age, gender, address, phone number etc. They also sometimes obtain deeply sensitive data like your income, health status and even arrest records.
How do they get your information? Propublica says, that the stores you shop at sell your information to data companies. Data brokers can also collect your information by tracking your online and offline activities. They also use government records and other publicly available information, including public voting records. The DMV might even sell your personal information like name, address, and the type of vehicles you own.
What do they do with that information? Well apparently they use all this information, just for advertising purposes. They use the information they collected to show products that you’re more likely to purchase. Doesn’t seem too bad but if I’m being honest, all of this is a little bit too suspicious. It’s important to note that they aren’t actually “stealing” your information since data companies are obtaining it legally. Though it’s kind of crazy to think that they get all of this personal information, just to give you ads. I guess I can kind of see why they would do it, but I’m still skeptical about it.
Government Regulations: Good or Bad?
Now that we have the data broker basics down, it’s time to talk about whether or not the government should get involved to regulate the protection of our information. On the federal level, Congress has drafted several privacy legislation, like the SAFE DATA Act, the Consumer Data Protection Act, Filter Bubble Transparency Act and the DETOUR Act. Surprisingly, some of the proposed legislation were bipartisan (which is rare considering our current political climate.) The SAFE DATA Act combines the latter 3 Acts into one Act but this has yet to have bipartisan support as it was Republican-backed. On the state level, there have been states that have already passed data privacy laws. Vermont was actually the first state to pass data broker legislation.
After reading a quick overview of the proposed Acts, I’m on board. One of the main takeaways from it was that it increases transparency with consumers. I think this is really important to have that transparency because the consumer should be aware of the information data companies are collecting.
Angelina's Angle 