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Data Brokers

oag.ca.gov

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Re: Data Brokers

#71

Post by rolandog »

rckoepke wrote: post #53
dannyw wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the very least, when a company acquires my data through any mechanism, it should be forced to email me with a copy of all the data they have on me, and with a one click link to get them to delete the data and permanently opt out. Any company found in procession of personal data without the appropriate (delivered) email notifications being sent should be fined at minimum $1000 per individual, and criminal charges i…

This would severely backfire if the data broker thought someone else's email account was associated with your identity. Say: Danny W[ilkins] - Job Title - Salary - Job application records - Social media post history - Email 1: dannyw@gmail.com (correct) - Email 2: dannywilkins@EmployerLLC.com (correct) - Email 3: dannywinters@hotmail.com (not correct) I'd assume they'd send the email containing your salary and post h…

Also, there's the situation of people who receive a lot of emails from services where the user mistyped their email, but the service doesn't validate the registered email.

In my case, I always feel I'm fighting a losing battle against the horde of emails addressed to users of unknown services...

There are a growing number of services that validate the email and include a "I didn't register at this service".

This has me worried, because I can imagine so many scenarios where the metadata aggregators scrape and mis-classify by email:

A teenage boy using a Snapchat-like service had created an account with my email and I had to manually delete it; some guy used my email to register his account at a MacDonald's franchise's ERP; I once received a booking confirmation from some large airline (and Google nicely reminded me that I had an upcoming flight); also, I was once wrongfully tagged by email in an unlisted web album of a party that had taken place in a French village by an older lady.

I always try to reach out to notify the person... But sometimes it's hard to call a Peruvian bank to notify them that one of their account holders used my email to register his account, and they tell you they'll get around to notifying the user, but don't.

Now; I could imagine several scenarios where things might get bumpy for me in the near future...

Like in the event where someone tries to forecast criminal behavior; or what if a government thinks I should be paying taxes on some income that their metadata suggests I have (because, why else would you have emails in your inbox from that bank?).

Re: Data Brokers

#72

Post by lawnchair_larry »

ekianjo wrote: post #62
dialfordollars wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lot of companies still need to register. * LinkedIn - Sell your data via Sales Navigator * ZoomInfo - Scrape your email account and sell the data to other businesses - https://www.zoominfo.com/business/about-zoominfo/privacy-pol... * DiscoverOrg * Clearbit - Browser extension scrapes your emails for data and they sell it to others via their "free browser-based add-ons, extensions, or plug-ins" - https://clearbit.com/…

How about Microsoft? With all the telemetry in Windows 10 and what they know about the end users, the only question is whether or not they sell the data to anyone, I guess?

No, direct relationship

Re: Data Brokers

#73

Post by closeparen »

progval wrote: post #61
closeparen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blacking out credit history would obliterate lending, which would in turn collapse asset prices and lead to a complete restructuring of entire industries and society itself. If that were on the table, you would’ve heard. This is primarily about the companies that buy your phone number from your gym membership or supermarket loyalty card and sell it to telemarketers. They won’t be missed.

> Blacking out credit history would obliterate lending Credit history companies like Equifax are very much an American thing; lending still works everywhere else. They are such a non-topic in France that I only learned about them last year, and the French Wikipedia page on the subject is very short, and only documents the US, Canada, and China: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89valuation_des_risques-cl... And IANAL…

A quick Google search suggests that the Bank of France itself tracks defaults.

As I understand it, the American weirdness is that this is a private sector function rather than a service of the state. Not that it exists.

Re: Data Brokers

#74

Post by closeparen »

bonoboTP wrote: post #60
closeparen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blacking out credit history would obliterate lending, which would in turn collapse asset prices and lead to a complete restructuring of entire industries and society itself. If that were on the table, you would’ve heard. This is primarily about the companies that buy your phone number from your gym membership or supermarket loyalty card and sell it to telemarketers. They won’t be missed.

I don't think society would need to be restructured. Many countries do fine without private third party entities managing people's credit history and score. Instead, you have to provide data on your credit worthiness each time you request credit from a particular bank. Such as bills, income proof, assets etc.

In which countries can you default on a loan and then go get another one like it never happened? Sure it might be the state hosting the mechanism instead of a private company, but that mechanism is pretty important.

Re: Data Brokers

#75

Post by vineyardmike »

lonelappde wrote: post #70
vineyardmike wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ad you see in the search results was put their by google after an advertiser said “advertise to someone who searches for X, and also likes hacker news”. Google wouldn’t share that data to the advertiser. Once you click the ad... that’s another story.

Does clicking on a link to a Google.com URL create a consensual relationship with whoever Google.com redirects to? That seems absurd.

Why else would you click on the link, except to go to the website of the business at the other end?

Certainly visiting the website of a business is a consented action, when you were searching, and then clicked a link, for relevant keywords to that business.

Re: Data Brokers

#76

Post by progval »

closeparen wrote: post #73
progval wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blacking out credit history would obliterate lending Credit history companies like Equifax are very much an American thing; lending still works everywhere else. They are such a non-topic in France that I only learned about them last year, and the French Wikipedia page on the subject is very short, and only documents the US, Canada, and China: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89valuation_des_risques-cl... And IANAL…

A quick Google search suggests that the Bank of France itself tracks defaults. As I understand it, the American weirdness is that this is a private sector function rather than a service of the state. Not that it exists.

Yes, and it only tracks defaults; and you're notified 30 days before being added to the file. And you are removed from the file as soon as you repaid what you owed.

Source: https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F17608

That's nowhere near the amount of data Equifax collects.

Re: Data Brokers

#77

Post by silexia »

throwaway4392 wrote: post #68

Err-- I have a successful business that falls under the "data broker" category and requires I register, but I won't. I won't because they don't tell you what the "fee" is until the Attorney General "reviews" the submission and then assigns a fee to you. Sounds like extortion to me. I am not going to give them all of the leverage and then accept whatever fee they want to levy on me. If they want me to register, have a…

Any business that sells people's data without their knowledge is unethical. You should consider an alternative direction for your life.

Re: Data Brokers

#78

Post by throwaway4392 »

silexia wrote: post #77
throwaway4392 wrote: post #68

Err-- I have a successful business that falls under the "data broker" category and requires I register, but I won't. I won't because they don't tell you what the "fee" is until the Attorney General "reviews" the submission and then assigns a fee to you. Sounds like extortion to me. I am not going to give them all of the leverage and then accept whatever fee they want to levy on me. If they want me to register, have a…

Any business that sells people's data without their knowledge is unethical. You should consider an alternative direction for your life.

Oh really? Yet you probably use Google, Facebook and a ton of other services that do far worse.

Re: Data Brokers

#79

Post by bonoboTP »

closeparen wrote: post #74
bonoboTP wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think society would need to be restructured. Many countries do fine without private third party entities managing people's credit history and score. Instead, you have to provide data on your credit worthiness each time you request credit from a particular bank. Such as bills, income proof, assets etc.

In which countries can you default on a loan and then go get another one like it never happened? Sure it might be the state hosting the mechanism instead of a private company, but that mechanism is pretty important.

Yeah, if you default on it and there's a court decision etc. then it gets recorded in a government system and you are on a blacklist.

It's quite different and a lot less fine-grained than feeding all your credit-related and non-credit-related history into some ML model to estimate your credit worthiness.

Re: Data Brokers

#80

Post by closeparen »

bonoboTP wrote: post #79
closeparen wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In which countries can you default on a loan and then go get another one like it never happened? Sure it might be the state hosting the mechanism instead of a private company, but that mechanism is pretty important.

Yeah, if you default on it and there's a court decision etc. then it gets recorded in a government system and you are on a blacklist. It's quite different and a lot less fine-grained than feeding all your credit-related and non-credit-related history into some ML model to estimate your credit worthiness.

Sure, and nationalizing or limiting the scope of credit reporting are both fine ideas.

It is still a third party collecting a fact about someone and repeating it to others, to the data subject's detriment and against his will.

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