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Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

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Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#31

Post by patrickg_zill »

axaxs wrote: post #27
SkyMarshal wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If I give a company my data, In some cases you're not knowingly giving them your data either.

That's the depressing part. I usually shop at Meijer because they were the last grocery left without annoying loyalty cards. As of this year, I've began receiving in the mail coupons for specific items I'd bought there. So either my credit card company has sold my data, or it was 'stolen' when they scanned my license to buy beer at some point(they require scanning the license, not DOB entry). I'm tired of this.

The credit card info is called "level 3 data" and they in some cases have line item by line item detail. Not just "spend $24.89 at Meijer store #349" but each individual thing, e.g. you bought 2 avocados.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#32

Post by blt »

chatman wrote: post #8

And, they made fun of RMS... He was telling you what the future holds. This is just a trailer of what is to come.

I agree, it is really unfortunate that even people within the software development profession take these issues so lightly.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#35

Post by axaxs »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #31
axaxs wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the depressing part. I usually shop at Meijer because they were the last grocery left without annoying loyalty cards. As of this year, I've began receiving in the mail coupons for specific items I'd bought there. So either my credit card company has sold my data, or it was 'stolen' when they scanned my license to buy beer at some point(they require scanning the license, not DOB entry). I'm tired of this.

The credit card info is called "level 3 data" and they in some cases have line item by line item detail. Not just "spend $24.89 at Meijer store #349" but each individual thing, e.g. you bought 2 avocados.

Is that recent? I just started getting it this year. Is there a way to opt out?

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#36

Post by rixrax »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #22
mr_spothawk wrote: post #11

spoiler alert: nobody goes to jail.

In all seriousness, what law (in the US) has this company broken? I'm assuming all the data they got was somehow obtained through legal channels in the first place? People may be up in arms about this being a "breach", but think about it: they're a "data brokerage" company. Consider this breach a sale price of $0. My point is what should be scary is that all of this data is bought and sold about all of us, all the ti…

Sadly, I think you're right. And in the end, this may just end up being great marketing for the data their selling.

Reminds me a startup that I used to work for a while back. We had hired a new hot-shot marketing VP. First thing he does is to purchase 'qualified leads' from some dubious data broker and trumpet how he had generated more leads in his first week than the company had over it's existence. Then the new hot-shot VP of sales hires a couple of inside-sales guys to call through this massive list with a script (which they probably bought from somewhere too since I don't recall recognizing our product from it) provided by new marketing VP.

This was a time when people still answered when someone called from unknown number. I remember chatting with the poor inside-sales guys who had to do the calling, and oh boy were they frustrated, but that was nothing compared to how badly the calling was received by people who got the calls.

I am pretty sure company got exactly zero sales out of that exercise and probably killed a few future deals too. But I am sure at least marketing VP met his KPIs.

Moral of the story: there are shady people out there that are more than happy to pay for all kinds of data sets.

I believe that as a society we should exert more control over our data, and companies selling it should be scrutinized, regulated and taxed for doing so.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#37

Post by shakna »

threeseed wrote: post #28
axaxs wrote: post #14

When will this stop? When's the last straw? If I gave a bank 100 dollars, and they lost it, I'd have avenues with which to pursue some sort of justice. If I give a company my data, and they lose it, oh well. I wish all personal data was treated like HIPAA, at a minimum.

Why do you think this can be stopped ? Think it through. You can't stop data loss until you can guarantee platform security. You can't do that until you prevent developers from creating bugs and security flaws in the first place. You can only do that unless you have either perfect tools to catch all the issues or a perfect testing regime. It's basically an unsolvable problem.

We can't prevent builders and architects from making mistakes either, but they are required to comply with regulations, and take out insurance to cover their customers in the event of human failure.

If the problem is inevitable on some level, then why isn't insurance to cover that eventuality required?

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#39

Post by patrickg_zill »

axaxs wrote: post #35
patrickg_zill wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The credit card info is called "level 3 data" and they in some cases have line item by line item detail. Not just "spend $24.89 at Meijer store #349" but each individual thing, e.g. you bought 2 avocados.

Is that recent? I just started getting it this year. Is there a way to opt out?

From what I know, it started a few years ago; but not all big stores had the equipment in place to send it (the cc processors give them a discount for sending the line-item level 3 data).

With the advent of the chip and pin cards in the USA, it seems logical that just about everyone upgraded to equipment that does support it; which might explain why you are only seeing this in the past year.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#40

Post by paulie_a »

axaxs wrote: post #14

When will this stop? When's the last straw? If I gave a bank 100 dollars, and they lost it, I'd have avenues with which to pursue some sort of justice. If I give a company my data, and they lose it, oh well. I wish all personal data was treated like HIPAA, at a minimum.

It won't.
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