"Reclaim Your Name": FTC Commissioner Joins Call for Data Broker Transparency

You may not be familiar with companies like Datalogix or Acxiom, but you can bet they're familiar with you. These companies and other "data brokers" operate behind the scenes, collecting and selling information about almost every American household including employment history, recent purchases, and more. But while these companies are happy to sell and share your personal information with other companies and even the government, they aren't so interested in being upfront with you. We've supported the California Right to Know Act to address this information disparity, and we are glad to hear that FTC Commissioner Julie Brill is joining the call for transparency by proposing a new campaign called "Reclaim Your Name."

Unfortunately, the capacity to collect and analyze "big data" is far outpacing current privacy protections, rendering the information collected by data brokers ripe for misuse. As a 2012 Congressional investigation revealed, data brokers scoop up vast amounts of data from public records and combine this with data about activities like Internet and phone usage, financial transactions and accounts, and credit card purchases. Once compiled, this information is packaged into detailed profiles that can reveal very sensitive information including health problems and financial concerns. It's no surprise that this data has already been misused. We've seen marketers targeting based on personal secrets, scammers using data broker lists to target vulnerable populations like seniors, lost job opportunities, and denied mortgages due to data brokers sharing incorrect information. The U.S Government is also a customer, with government agencies like the FBI circumventing federal Privacy Act safeguards that limit the data they can collect by just tapping into data brokers when they want information about an individual.

In the aftermath of recent revelations that the federal government is engaged in widespread collection of data about phone and Internet traffic, the business community needs to seize every opportunity it can to regain user trust through increased transparency and user control. The Reclaim Your Name campaign would be an important step in that direction. It would give consumers access to their own records held by data brokers, provide a means to opt-out of having information sold for marketing purposes, and allow consumers to correct errors before incorrect data is relied upon to make decisions about credit, insurance, employment, and other opportunities.

Many companies are starting to open up their data to consumers. Data broker Acxiom recently announced plans to give consumers access to their data. Companies like Facebook and Google have developed online tools providing users access to their own data (something they are required to do already for European customers), and LinkedIn recently announced plans for its own Privacy Portal. These might serve as starting points for the Reclaim Your Name online portal envisioned by Commissioner Brill, where data brokers would describe their practices and consumer access policies.

The only concern we have about the Reclaim Your Name proposal is that it may not cover the data brokers hidden in plain sight. As Commissioner Brill noted, "Americans are now more aware than ever of how much of their personal data is free-floating in cyberspace, ripe for any data miner—government or otherwise—to collect, use, package, and sell." But while companies like Acxiom and Datalogix are part of this data economy, so too are consumer-facing businesses like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, all of which were implicated in the PRISM program (link to chart). Truly giving consumers transparency and control requires the cooperation of all companies whose business involves collecting, using, and sharing personal information, not just those who sell it.

Transparency is on the mind of the public and policymakers at both the state and national level, and business models that keep customers in the dark about data collection and disclosure can erode consumer goodwill. It's time for companies to support—rather than oppose—transparency laws like the California Right to Know Act and get on board with initiatives like Reclaim Your Name.