The Internet Is Always Watching

And, more importantly, what are they doing with the information that they learn about you?

In a recent blog post, we mentioned a familiar scenario: You look at items on a retail website; when you visit Facebook later, you see an ad for one (or more) of the products you looked at.

By now, you’re probably painfully aware that ads are an annoying but common component of almost every website out there. (In some cases, they make the actual content difficult to find.)

But you may not know that, in the background, connected to each of those digital advertisements, are marketing agencies, advertisers, and more that are paying close attention to you. They are silently tracking you and gathering information: what websites you visit, how long you spend there, where you go next, what you click on, and a whole lot more.

Consumer marketing has been around much longer than the internet. Remember filling out short questionnaires to get coupons? But technology and changing business models have made the sheer volume — and breadth — of gathered data much higher than it used to be. It’s obtained from internet browsing, social media, and smart devices. And some of the details are very specific (your friends, your favorite restaurants, where you drive, what medications you take, etc.).

These days, analyzing consumer data is a big, big business.

But, unlike with a questionnaire, this information is gathered without you even being aware of it. And it’s not only marketers who have access to it.

In fact, a ton of data about you and your habits gets sold to commercial data brokers: organizations that gather information for marketing/business, credit scoring, or fraud detection purposes. According to Former FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, “data brokers often know as much — or more — about us than our family and friends.”

And these companies don’t just gather information. They sell it to other entities that find this data to be valuable.

Acxiom, a giant data broker, allows you to create an account to view — and to change — information gathered about you (from government records, publicly available data, surveys and questionnaires you fill out, data from commercial sources). But it doesn’t reveal everything. And there are many more consumer data brokers out there (many of whom will not allow you this type of window into their data gathering processes).

And here’s something you probably didn’t want to hear: There are scant regulations for this industry.

From a 2013 Senate report: “Data brokers operate behind a veil of secrecy. Three of the largest companies…have been similarly secretive with the Committee with respect to their practices, refusing to identify the specific sources of their data or the customers who purchase it.”

Now let’s change that scenario we shared earlier: Instead of a retail site, let’s say you visit a political website and then a site with information about a specific illness. As with the shopping example, this online activity is noticed.

The big questions: Who is doing the noticing? And what happens with this knowledge — this sometimes very personal knowledge — that has just been obtained about you?

The answer to both of these questions? It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to know for sure.

Information about your ideological leanings, your health issues, and more could be shared with marketers. Drug manufacturers. Political campaigns. Employers that may be vetting you. Insurance companies that may not want to cover you.

A recent Newsweekarticle states that “it’s unknown exactly how many data brokers operate in the United States, because so many keep a low profile. Credible estimates range from 2,500 to 4,000.”

While the data gathering is more than likely to continue indefinitely, it’s good to at least be aware of it.

To learn more about protecting your online presence, check out our related article.

Intelius does not provide consumer reports and is not a consumer reporting agency as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This site should not be used to determine an individual’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, housing or any other purpose covered by the FCRA.

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