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Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

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Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#91
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great answer thanks! I hadn't heard the term DMP

BlueKai is one of the biggest; it's a data marketplace for cookie-tagged data. They were bought by Oracle a few years ago.

And Krux's website says they have been acquired by Salesforce.

http://www.krux.com/blog/general/salesforce-krux/

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#92

You mean data brokers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_broker ) Top US brokers: - Acxiom - Experian - Epsilon - CoreLogic - Datalogix - eBureau - ID Analytics - inome - PeekYou - Rapleaf - Recorded Future Protip: loyalty/reward cards are a gold mine, especially drug store purchase receipt data

New York Times reporter Natasha Singer has extensively covered the data broker industry for the past several years.

Here are some of the key articles but you can find more at https://www.nytimes.com/by/natasha-singer

Jun 16, 2012 | Acxiom, the Quiet Giant of Consumer Database Marketing http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/technology/acxiom-the-quie...

Jul 21, 2012 | Consumer Data, but Not for Consumers http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/business/acxiom-consumer-d...

Jul 24, 2012 | Congress Opens Inquiry Into Data Brokers http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/technology/congress-opens-...

Dec 08, 2012 | Company Envisions 'Vaults' for Personal Data http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/business/company-envisions...

Aug 31, 2013 | A Data Broker Offers a Peek Behind the Curtain http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-data-broker-off...

Sep 04, 2013 | Getting a Glimpse of Your Own Marketing Data Online http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/getting-a-glimpse-o...

Sep 04, 2013 | Acxiom Lets Consumers See Data It Collects http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/technology/acxiom-lets-con...

Dec 23, 2014 | Data Broker Is Charged With Selling Consumers' Financial Details to Fraudsters https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/data-broker-is-cha...

Jun 28, 2015 | When a Company Is Put Up for Sale, in Many Cases, Your Personal Data Is, Too http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/technology/when-a-company-...

Pro tip: If you want to avoid giving out your purchase data, pay cash wherever possible.

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#93
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no such public list. Most of these companies are privately held, their methods are trade secrets, and there is no real form of legal recourse. How can there not be a public list of these data miners? When e.g. a court needs to control someone's information surely they know who these people are and they can let them know? Is there a secret list in every courthouse or something? Or when someone wants to star…

a court needs to control someone's information surely they know who these people are and they can let them know? I think you have a misunderstanding of what a US court can do. A court can only tell a specific party to take some action, and generally only if that party is somehow related to the legal action (such as being a defendant). Generally, there is no judgement that a court can make that can effect unnamed part…

What about class action? Could you make a class action against those who have sold your information?

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#94

Easy one is they scrape Google for Linkedin bio info. I'm paranoid that USPS sells your info once you fill out their change of address form.

> I'm paranoid that USPS sells your info once you fill out their change of address form.

They do: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/08/how-the-p...

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#95
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've considered working on this problem from a business standpoint, but I couldn't figure out a good business model for it. I don't think too many people will pay a monthly fee to have their information removed from these services. My guess is that they would sign up for a month and after their information has been removed, immediately cancel their subscription until they needed to do it again. And a yearly fee seeme…

It's possible that the business could be so successful that everyone uses it, the services selling this information all run out of customers and go out of business, none of them come up with newer and more evil ways to do this, and you run out of potential customers. In which case: mission accomplished , retire on your giant pile of money and bask in the knowledge that you made a far better place. (Avoid scenarios in…

Dell is pretty bad. I get every month three (when one is more than enough) catalogs to my address, because of slight variances in my name, even though they are all the same person.

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#96

Easy one is they scrape Google for Linkedin bio info. I'm paranoid that USPS sells your info once you fill out their change of address form.

You're not paranoid, I don't know if money changes hands but my changes of address have 100% been accompanied by spam snail mail.

I just don't change my mailing address anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#97

You mean data brokers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_broker ) Top US brokers: - Acxiom - Experian - Epsilon - CoreLogic - Datalogix - eBureau - ID Analytics - inome - PeekYou - Rapleaf - Recorded Future Protip: loyalty/reward cards are a gold mine, especially drug store purchase receipt data

Right, but where do they get their data? Are they rolling their own JS API that developers roll into each page? I certainly have never put any of that into any site I've made or seen.

> Right, but where do they get their data?

You give it to them when you sign up for that stupid rewards card.

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#98

Easy one is they scrape Google for Linkedin bio info. I'm paranoid that USPS sells your info once you fill out their change of address form.

You mean like this? http://www.nationalchangeofaddress.com/

WTF. So if Intelius has your address, they can pay the USPS to get your new address. That incentivizes me not to fill out that darn form.

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#99

If anyone reading this thread is interested: I would pay non-trivial amounts of money on a regular basis for a service that systematically worked to eliminate records like these (and the sources they draw from), as well as chasing down sources of junk mail and the lists they ultimately draw from. The value would depend on effectiveness, and on the degree to which the service clearly reported exactly what they did. Ca…

I actually am running a (year long) experiment. I found a data broker who had my info. They offered a way to "correct" the record, so I added a car that I don't own (who's warranty should be ready for extended warranty offers in a few months) and added many many "off by one" errors like an extra zero on my income, or transposed digits on the size of my house.

We'll see where it lands.

I personally would also pay for this sort of service.

Re: Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

#100

You mean data brokers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_broker ) Top US brokers: - Acxiom - Experian - Epsilon - CoreLogic - Datalogix - eBureau - ID Analytics - inome - PeekYou - Rapleaf - Recorded Future Protip: loyalty/reward cards are a gold mine, especially drug store purchase receipt data

+1 Thanks for actually posting a list!
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