Data is worth a lot of money, most people know that by now. However, few really understand the data market. This is because the majority of players are rather secretive and it is easy to see why.
What is a data broker? Find out and understand.
What is a data broker? : Summary
- Who are data brokers?
- What data do they collect?
- How is the information collected?
- How do they sell it?
- Regulations have been put in place
Who are the data brokers?
Cambridge Analytica is without a doubt, the most well-known company in this field since the 2018 controversy. But yet, there are many others.
You’ve probably never heard ofAcxiom, CoreLogic and Epsilon. There’s a reason for that. They prefer to keep a low profile. These are just a few of the larger companies that make money by collecting, aggregating and selling user data.
What data do they collect?
By collecting user metadata from many different sources, data brokers are able to build a very accurate picture of people’s lives. They can find out your income, age, gender and address. But some seek to go even further, collecting specific data, such as location, shopping behavior or psychological traits.
By combining all of this information with your online behavior, brokers can get a sense of how your relationship is evolving, your health status, your search for a new job or your intention to move to another city and thus predict some of your future consumer behavior.
By knowing your interests and state of mind, targeting can be done very effectively.
How is the information collected?
Data is collected from many different sources. Third-party cookies, public wifi networks and website scraping are the most common ways to collect information. For this reason, you should never accept all cookies.
If you accept all cookies and have your Facebook profile set to “public,” chances are the brokers have a very accurate profile of you.
If you want to know the value of your data, the Rita mobile app allows you to view, monitor and earn rewards from your data. On average, 197 companies have access to your data. Rita shows you how many and who has access.
How do they sell it?
One way is through Datarade.ai, a data broker aggregation platform, where you can see brokers promoting their customer data sets.
The obvious lack of transparency in this marketplace leads to some ethical issues. Companies know information about you without you knowing it. This leads to a form of exploitation of individuals by companies.
Regulations have been put in place
Although these practices have been going on for years now, regulators have recently started to take action. The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) and equivalent regulations have all taken action.
Regulators have required more transparency and enforcement of consent validation and easier and more transparent ways to opt out. However, the processes remain time-consuming for individuals. Service solutions to remove your personal information from online databases are starting to come to market. Among them is Incogni.
In absolute terms, targeting and adapting content according to Internet users is not a bad thing if it improves the user experience. On the other hand, it’s always nice to discover relevant content.
However, data transactions should be transparent and user-centric. We believe that users should know what data is being collected and have the choice to share it or not. Remember that using a VPN can hide your online activity, IP address and browsing data.
