(Wavy) – This week, have you received any texts from individuals claiming to be part of the automotive industry? If so, you might be wondering how your personal details ended up in untrustworthy hands.
Wavy, which is connected to Nexstar, sought answers. After all, you may have shared your information without even being aware of it.
Lena Cohen, who is affiliated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation—a nonprofit dedicated to defending civil liberties in the digital arena—suggested that it’s quite possible that your personal data is being traded for profit without your consent.
“We want to ensure that your offline rights carry over when you’re online,” Cohen explained. “In a country without comprehensive federal privacy laws, your personal information has often been collected and sold without restriction.”
This has turned into a significant concern for consumers. There are several primary avenues through which data finds its way into the hands of what’s known as a “data broker.” These include public records, loyalty programs, and digital footprints derived from cookies. Data brokers acquire your data and then resell it, sometimes like commodities. This information can be utilized in numerous ways.
Things like phone numbers, details about your relatives, and your location history are available for purchase—much of it sourced from places you’d expect to be secure.
“They gather data from public records, such as marriage and housing records,” Cohen noted. “They also mine data from social media platforms and make purchases from other companies, including grocery chains and retailers. Even credit card companies can be sources of data for broker deals.”
If you believe the extent of the information that brokers acquire is limited to the occasional spam message, think again. Experts assert that this covert brokering industry poses serious risks, particularly regarding national security.
To illustrate this, in 2023, researchers from Duke University obtained a significant amount of data from brokers. They established servers in Singapore and discovered that brokers were able to sell personal information about active military personnel, veterans, and their families. Although they chose not to buy mental health or location data, such information was still up for grabs.
Brokers even had the means to sell large datasets concerning individuals within military bases like Fort Bragg and Quantico.
The pathways through which data flows vary, depending on who initially collects it.
“There may be a direct link between the app you use and the data broker,” Cohen explained. “Alternatively, there could be several steps between. For example, the app may share information with an advertising network that then disseminates your information for targeted advertising purposes.”
Only a few states are currently taking steps to safeguard your personal information by enabling residents to compel over 500 data broker organizations to delete their data at the push of a button.
However, it seems that you often have to take the initiative to protect your privacy yourself.
“This situation highlights the regulation—or lack thereof—within this industry,” Cohen remarked. “We know relatively little about data brokers and their operations. They hold extensive information about us and who they distribute it to. Essentially, they know a lot about who we are.”
Wavy has created a simple guide outlining steps you can take to safeguard your information right away:
Provided by Electronic Frontier Foundation, various tools are available to assist in protecting your data.
