The rise of the Internet and the proliferation of gadgets capable of capturing and transferring information has resulted in the commodification of personal data.
While your name, gender, date of birth, or hobbies may seem mundane facts about yourself, they are incredibly valuable for marketers, recruiters, credit companies, and more.
Certain entities make a profit from collecting, analyzing, and trading your personal data without your informed consent, which can harm your digital privacy and put you at risk of criminal cyber activity. Here’s what you need to know.
What Are Data-collecting Sites?
Also known as “data brokers” or “information brokers”, data-collecting sites are companies that collect your personal (and often sensitive) information from a variety of sources, including websites, apps, consumer and credit card companies, and public records.
By using these sources, a data-collecting site may get a hold of the following details:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Marital and family status
- Phone number
- Email address
- Social security number
- Education level
- Occupation
- Purchase habits
- Health data
- Hobbies and interest
All of this information is aggregated to create a profile of you, which brokers will sell to other companies for several commercial purposes.
Your data may end up in the hands of marketing, risk mitigation, health insurance, recruitment, and people search agencies.
Unbeknownst to many users of the Internet, data brokering is an industry worth over 200 billion dollars yearly.
It’s believed that there are 4,000 operating data brokers operating nowadays.
What Are The Risks Of Data-collecting Sites?
For the privacy conscious, the activities of data-collecting sites pose serious concerns.
However, the issue runs deeper than it seems. With a shadow profile (your collected information), financial companies can use your financial history in order to deny you loans or credit cards.
What’s more, they may use your health history to offer you higher insurance rates or target you with political ads depending on your demographic.
In addition to the privacy and ethical issues associated with data-collecting sites, there’s also the matter of leaks.
In 2017, Equifax, one of the biggest data brokers, was affected by a data breach that compromised the information of 147 million people.
Other data brokers, such as Epsilon, Acxiom, and Experian have been targets of hacking attacks, which resulted in the names and email addresses of millions of people.
These people were then targeted by spammers and spear-phishing attempts.
How To Remove Your Personal Information From Data-collection Sites
The process of removing your personal information from data-collection sites is time-consuming and oftentimes ineffective.
However, you can start by visiting the biggest sites and following the steps below:
- Search the data broker site for your name, surname, and home address
- Find whether your personal information is listed on the site.
- Issue opt-out requests for each piece of data you’d like to remove.
Note that some data brokers make the process more difficult than others.
For that, you can consult opt-out guides online that will go over all the necessary steps specific to numerous brokers.
How Can You Protect Your Personal Information From Data-collecting Sites?
When we need to use an app or a website, they will ask for your information in order to create your account. Take the following precautions to keep yourself safe when doing business online:
Enable Two-factor Authentication For All App/web Logins
There are numerous authenticator apps available today that you can use on your smartphone or computer.
Passcodes are an additional step in the login process, but they may be the safeguard that prevents malicious individuals from accessing your accounts in the event of a data breach.
Always Use A Password Manager To Keep Track Of Your Login Information
Creating an account by using a suggested password from an app is a much safer option; remember the same passwords and use them on all websites.
Many websites and apps now allow you to store delicate data and documents in your encrypted vault.
Always Read The Privacy Policies Of Apps And Websites
Reading a privacy policy is a small but significant step toward preventing data breaches.
First, you must decide what personal information an organization will collect from you and what they intend to do with that information.
Avoid Granting Access To Unnecessary Data-gathering Apps/websites
Don’t give out your personal information for a small bonus or free access to a paid app.
Most of the information requested on a company’s web form is not necessary, so you can get away with leaving out important information about yourself.