#consumer data

Facebook is also a data broker / data provider who purchases your offline data. FB combines your offline and online data for profit — $55.8 billion in revenue for 2018.

Thanks to a new Vermont law requiring companies that buy and sell third-party personal data to register with the Secretary of State, we’ve been able to assemble a list of 121 data brokers operating in the U.S. It’s a rare, rough glimpse into a bustling economy that operates largely in the shadows, and often with few rules.

Even Vermont’s first-of-its-kind law, which went into effect last month, doesn’t require data brokers to disclose who’s in their databases, what data they collect, or who buys it. Nor does it require brokers to give consumers access to their own data or opt out of data collection. Brokers are, however required to provide some information about their opt-out systems under the law–assuming they provide one.

read about “DELETING” YOUR DATA

You are the product  — #SurveillanceEconomy — scared?

Equifax, one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies, said on Thursday that a data breach left Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and other sensitive information for 143 million United States consumers vulnerable to hackers.

(Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images)

After Equifax data breach

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