:welp: The Pentagon Tried to Hide That It Bought Americans’ Data Without a Warrant
— WIRED
"Wyden's office says it’s been investigating sales of location data to the government for years, uncovering multiple ties between the Department of Defense and what the senator refers to as “shady companies" committing “flagrant violations” of people's privacy. The companies' practices are “not just unethical, but illegal,” he says."
Instead of obtaining a warrant, the NSA would like to keep buying your data
An effort by US lawmakers to prevent government agencies from tracking citizens without a search warrant is opposed by the #NSA.
Last month it was revealed that US intelligence agencies were avoiding judicial review by purchasing a “large amount” of “sensitive and intimate information” on Americans, including data that can be used to trace people’s whereabouts.
...Powered by... Consumer Reports Permission Slip will put control back in the hands of its users by acting as a liaison between the companies and consumers, ensuring their user data is erased and not sold to third parties...
[[It]]... allows consumers to manage who has their data and... request it not be sold or delete their accounts entirely with the simple tap of a button... #privacy#databrokers
Data broker’s “staggering” sale of sensitive info exposed in unsealed US FTC filing: Major value in users’ data
One of the world’s largest mobile data brokers, Kochava, has lost its battle to stop the Federal Trade Commission from revealing what the FTC has alleged is a disturbing, widespread pattern of unfair use and sale of sensitive data without consent from hundred ...continues
#Cybersecurity#Privacy#DataProtection#DataBrokers#AdTech: "Internet browsing data is being collected and sold in greater detail than previously thought, increasing the likelihood that individuals’ identities can be ascertained from the anonymised information, a new report has found.
Web users have for years been grouped by data brokers by traits such as their broad professional sector or interests, inferred from their browsing history. This anonymised information is then sold to advertisers so they can target specific categories, or segments, with personalised marketing.
An investigation by the non-profit Irish Council for Civil Liberties published on Tuesday shows the number of segments is greater than previously thought, including data on many influential and sensitive professions that were not known to be sold to advertisers.
Data has been put into segments used to target judges, elected officials, military personnel and “decision makers” working in national security, it found."
Especially when you see this opt-out list where it may or may not work out (depending on company) and some companies still require you to snail mail your documents with no guarantee of acknowledgement (h/t @yaelwrites for the list): https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-List
"US #Senator Ron Wyden released documents confirming the #NationalSecurityAgency buys Americans’ internet records, which can [read: WILL] reveal which #websites they visit and what #apps they use."
I‘m shocked by the response I got from a data broker today. And not because they didn‘t give me any information on what they are doing with my data (which they didn‘t), but because of the copy of my data, which they did give me.
The amount of data they have is - for a lack of a better description - surprising. They must have scraped every single bit of information for years and never deleted any of it. Oh, we‘re going to have fun.
— #GDPR#privacy#DataProtection#DataBrokers
A well intentioned piece of advice for all the data brokers out there: If you offer the personal data you‘ve amassed to a privacy professional, they might hit you with everything the GDPR has in store. And yes, that just happened. 🤦♂️😆
— #privacy#DataProtection#GDPR#BigData#DataBrokers
#Privacy#Surveillance#GeoLocation#DataBrokers#DataBrokerage#Bazze: "A San Francisco-based data broker claiming to have defense agency partnerships in the United States and United Kingdom is advertising access to “real-time” location data and a suite of other information, which Western governments can use to track foreign individuals in sensitive locations overseas. Called Bazze, the company markets a platform that can enable searches for people in embassies, consulates, and military bases, underscoring governments’ growing reliance on data brokers to access vast quantities of intelligence on global citizens from commercial sources.
Bazze is part of an often opaque data broker network that mines information from digital ad firms, cellular providers and public records databases for marketing insights and behavior trends. It claims to offer an easy way to ask targeted questions of disparate data sets that would otherwise need to be analyzed individually. In an interview with Forbes, Bazze founder Samuel Semwangu described the company as a marketplace for data. He was quick to note that it facilitates access only — not analysis. For that, “customers must use other tools and analysis they conduct on their own,” he told Forbes."