Collaborate Disseminate
The bill tasks the Department of Commerce with creating new export rules.
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Data brokers selling information about U.S military personnel could pose a national security risk.
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The Defense Intelligence Agency has been using smartphone location data purchased from commercially available databases, according to an intelligence memo obtained by CyberScoop. The DIA, which primarily provides intelligence to support U.S. military operations, has been gathering the location data on both Americans and non-U.S. citizens dating back two-and-a-half years, according to the memo, which was drafted by the DIA for the offices of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., states. The DIA has sought to access Americans’ data and their past movements a total of five times in that time period, according to the memo. The memo did not state the number of times non-citizens’ data was queried. While the agency did not describe what the searches encompassed, the memo makes clear that the agency is obtaining sensitive location data without a warrant. The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement previously suggested in a legal memo that government officials […]
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A group of 10 U.S. lawmakers on Friday asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate companies that sell Americans’ personal data by exploiting online advertising, calling for any lawbreaking firms to be shut down. The lawmakers, including Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., decried the data-selling practices as an “outrageous privacy violation,” citing reports that Mobilewalla, a data broker, compiled data from Black Lives Matter protestors for marketing purposes. The broader market for consumers’ personal data is lucrative, and includes a bidding process for online ads that include code for gobbling up information on users’ locations and personal devices. The lawmakers want the FTC to use its investigative power to determine if data brokers have broken a federal law that prohibits “unfair and deceptive” business practices. An FTC spokesperson declined to comment. “[T]here is no effective way to control these tools absent intervention by regulators and Congress,” the lawmakers wrote to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons. “Technological […]
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Apps like Grindr, Tinder and Happn are (over-)sharing data about sexuality, religion, and location with a shadowy network of data brokers. And it’s not just dating apps that are doing it… Continue reading Apps are sharing more of your data with ad industry than you may think
Bounty UK, a pregnancy and parenting club, has been hit with the equivalent of a $524,000 fine for illegally sharing personal information belonging to more than 14 million people with credit reference and marketing agencies, Britain’s data protection authority announced Friday. The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office fined Bounty UK £400,000 for collecting personal information “directly from new mothers at hospital bedsides,” through merchandise claim cards, its website and mobile app. The company collected information from new mothers, mothers-to-be, as well as the birth dates and genders of young children, according to the ICO. Bounty UK then would supply that data, some 34.4 million records, to 39 third party services including Equifax and other data brokers that in the past have failed to protect customer information. The fine was enforced for violations of the U.K.’s Data Protection Act, which requires firm to be transparent in their data collection practices, and involves […]
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The Apple CEO wants the FTC to set up a data-broker clearinghouse so people can see the data that companies have collected on them. Continue reading Tim Cook demands a way for users to delete their personal data
Millions of students’ data is being sold after being harvested from college-planning questionnaires or surveys that come with the SAT or PSAT tests. Continue reading High-schoolers’ data put up for sale after being scraped from surveys
The recent Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal put a spotlight on the nebulous world of data brokers and data mining. As you shop, browse the Internet, participate in a quiz, subscribe to a magazine, fill a prescription, or network on social medi… Continue reading Data Brokers: You Are Being Packaged and Sold
Thousands of third party apps were designed solely to obtain and sell your data. It’s no surprise that the data ended up being used again on Facebook, one of the biggest advertising platforms on Earth. Continue reading Cambridge Analytica’s Ad Targeting Is the Reason Facebook Exists