ECommerceTimes.com:
By Richard Adhikari
E-Commerce Times
The Federal Trade Commission launched a probe on Tuesday into the business practices of data brokerages, companies that collect and sell personal information on just about anyone. "The FTC's first goal is just to shine a light on industry practices," said Justin Brookman of the Center for Democracy and Technology. "If they don't like what they see, target enforcement actions could deter some of the most controversial or opaque processes."
The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced that it has demanded nine data brokerage companies explain how they collect and use consumer data.
The nine are Acxiom, Corelogic, Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, Peekyou, Rapleaf and Recorded Future.
These sites offer information on just about anyone, in most cases for a fee. Rapleaf might perhaps be the most disturbing to users, as it offers users data on age, gender and more with a claim of 90 percent accuracy from any list of email addresses uploaded by users.
"We don't have any suspicions," Tiffany George, an attorney in the FTC's division of privacy and identity protection, told the E-Commerce Times. "We are merely collecting information so that we can do a study."
The FTC is "asking these questions to get a handle on a really murky industry," Justin Brookman, director of the consumer privacy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said.
MORE
By Richard Adhikari
E-Commerce Times
The Federal Trade Commission launched a probe on Tuesday into the business practices of data brokerages, companies that collect and sell personal information on just about anyone. "The FTC's first goal is just to shine a light on industry practices," said Justin Brookman of the Center for Democracy and Technology. "If they don't like what they see, target enforcement actions could deter some of the most controversial or opaque processes."
The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced that it has demanded nine data brokerage companies explain how they collect and use consumer data.
The nine are Acxiom, Corelogic, Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, Peekyou, Rapleaf and Recorded Future.
These sites offer information on just about anyone, in most cases for a fee. Rapleaf might perhaps be the most disturbing to users, as it offers users data on age, gender and more with a claim of 90 percent accuracy from any list of email addresses uploaded by users.
"We don't have any suspicions," Tiffany George, an attorney in the FTC's division of privacy and identity protection, told the E-Commerce Times. "We are merely collecting information so that we can do a study."
The FTC is "asking these questions to get a handle on a really murky industry," Justin Brookman, director of the consumer privacy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said.
MORE