http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...y-has-built-a-profile-on-every-american-adult
IDI, a year-old company in the so-called data-fusion business, is the first to centralize and weaponize all that information for its customers. The Boca Raton, Fla., company’s database service, idiCORE, combines public records with purchasing, demographic, and behavioral data. Chief Executive Officer Derek Dubner says the system isn’t waiting for requests from clients—it’s already built a profile on every American adult, including young people who wouldn’t be swept up in conventional databases, which only index transactions. “We have data on that 21-year-old who’s living at home with mom and dad,” he says.
Dubner declined to provide a demo of idiCORE or furnish the company’s report on me. But he says these personal profiles include all known addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses; every piece of property ever bought or sold, plus related mortgages; past and present vehicles owned; criminal citations, from speeding tickets on up; voter registration; hunting permits; and names and phone numbers of neighbors. The reports also include photos of cars taken by private companies using automated license plate readers—billions of snapshots tagged with GPS coordinates and time stamps to help PIs surveil people or bust alibis.
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Since most of this information is freely available if you take the time to dig it out, that's not the question I have. Where I'm curious is the bolded statement: Can a company refuse to furnish a report to you, when that report contains a lot of personal information about you, and their intent is to sell it, either to you or to others?
I know there's a precedent from previous online companies that would require you to establish a subscription or pay a fee to get all known addresses; but can, or should, there be a recourse to opt out of this? Request that the company stop tracking you and making a profile about you?
Or should we simply say, "privacy doesn't exist"?
IDI, a year-old company in the so-called data-fusion business, is the first to centralize and weaponize all that information for its customers. The Boca Raton, Fla., company’s database service, idiCORE, combines public records with purchasing, demographic, and behavioral data. Chief Executive Officer Derek Dubner says the system isn’t waiting for requests from clients—it’s already built a profile on every American adult, including young people who wouldn’t be swept up in conventional databases, which only index transactions. “We have data on that 21-year-old who’s living at home with mom and dad,” he says.
Dubner declined to provide a demo of idiCORE or furnish the company’s report on me. But he says these personal profiles include all known addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses; every piece of property ever bought or sold, plus related mortgages; past and present vehicles owned; criminal citations, from speeding tickets on up; voter registration; hunting permits; and names and phone numbers of neighbors. The reports also include photos of cars taken by private companies using automated license plate readers—billions of snapshots tagged with GPS coordinates and time stamps to help PIs surveil people or bust alibis.
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Since most of this information is freely available if you take the time to dig it out, that's not the question I have. Where I'm curious is the bolded statement: Can a company refuse to furnish a report to you, when that report contains a lot of personal information about you, and their intent is to sell it, either to you or to others?
I know there's a precedent from previous online companies that would require you to establish a subscription or pay a fee to get all known addresses; but can, or should, there be a recourse to opt out of this? Request that the company stop tracking you and making a profile about you?
Or should we simply say, "privacy doesn't exist"?
