Stop by and have a look at your once-private information here at the Privacy Museum.
ElectricAye
Posts: 4,561
Hey, look, you get to see (a speck of) the data the data brokers are using to make money off of your once-private information.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-data-broker-offers-a-peek-behind-the-curtain.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1378037969-FepCkytKx7p/V3GZHzAGTQ&
But to see it, you first must enter some once-private information about yourself.
Hey, little kid, want some candy?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-data-broker-offers-a-peek-behind-the-curtain.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1378037969-FepCkytKx7p/V3GZHzAGTQ&
But to see it, you first must enter some once-private information about yourself.
Hey, little kid, want some candy?
Comments
Naw. I'm guessing in your case those are posted all over the web already.
I think the key word here is "some", so you will not get to see all of the information, and will never know if "some" of it is wrong.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2408558/Councils-sell-personal-details-fuelling-junk-mail-blitz.html
If you want privacy, keep your yap shut and stay off the internet. The news media is there for getting idiots to do idiotic things. In this case, letting a web site know that you are concerned about your privacy.
In this case, by logging into their system, they are able to identify your computer, dump some cookies on it, etc. and track you even better than before.
Among many things about this that burns my rear, random hackers, armed with minimal information, can get into that data base and look at information they don't even have to pay for - much of which is probably wrong but will get somehow etched in stone as time goes on and the data gets bounced around the echo chamber that is the information brokerage world.
It used to be that when you set up online access to something with a password, you would also choose one or more "security questions" and provide the site with the answer. (name of pet, name of high school, street you grew up on, etc.) Fine and dandy, you were given enough choices that most anyone could come up with questions and answers. If you needed to change your password, then you were prompted with one of YOUR "security questions". Sometimes, banks and other financial institutions would challenge you with you mother's maiden name or some such....I guess they paid for some information.
Lately, the questions have been getting more interesting and using more information than I ever provided (knowingly) to any institution. Recently, I was challenged with. "What is your maternal grandfathers's given name?" Huh? Where the heck did they get that and how did they CORRECTLY link it to me? My maternal grandfather died in the late 1930's - long before electronic records. So the linkage was accurately made through my mother, through her marriage and then to my birth and through my life events to get to my bank or wherever the question came from.
I've also been asked the name of my grade school, street I live on in 7th grade and a few others I've forgotten that weren't widely know facts or any data supplied by me. This is the data that is available to commercial interests. Someone has been busy collecting, processing and linking all kinds of records to amass this much information (and obviously much more) on all of us.
Thsi type of data mining activity brings into question the accuracy factor that Electric Aye mentioned, personal data that is wrong but becomes etched in stone.
At some point in his life, my Grandfather changed his name - which one (or both) are in the "records".
I also lived on two different streets in two different cities in 7th grade - I'm sure they have that one correct though, that was only 1972/73!
I think it's too late to for anyone to really go "off the grid". We probably don't even want to think about what is really known about us.
I think if that ever happens to me, that will be the last time I deal with that company. I've only had a couple of places that wanted to set up that kind of "security" question, usually I just pick something not too personally specific such as favorite color or first pet's name.
Personally, I'd have a hard time remembering most of the stuff you mentioned. I know for a fact that I don't remember more than half the addresses I've ever lived at and most relatives I wouldn't know their full given name.
That's the freaky part, these weren't the questions I chose from their pool, these just came out of the blue one day. I probably needed to do something on their site, so I really didn't think about it except to verify it was the site I thought it was. It wasn't until later that I started thinking about the implications of the questions asked.
I always pick the pet, color, first car type questions too.