A data broker (also known as an information product company) is an organization that makes money by collecting your personal information, analyzing it, and licensing it out to be used by other companies for things like marketing purposes.
Data providers gather data from many different sources to create a profile of who you are. This profile includes things like your interests, hobbies, demographics, and even the products you use. Generally, data broker companies only deal with customers to collect information. A few of the top data brokerage companies are Epsilon, Acxiom, and Experian, but there are many data brokerages worldwide that make a hefty profit from aggregating and distributing consumers’ personal data.
Read more…
Source: McAfee
Related:
- Toyota confirms customer and employee data stolen, says breach at third party to blame
August 21, 2024
Last week, a cybercriminal using the handle ZeroSevenGroup dumped 240GB of data on the infamous stolen data site BreachForums, that they said came from a hack on the US branch of car manufacturer Toyota. ZeroSevenGroup claims the dump includes customer and employee data. Toyota told BleepingComputer that a breach at a third party had led to the ...
- General Motors sued for selling customer driving data to third parties
August 20, 2024
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued General Motors (GM) for the unlawful collection and sale of over 1.5 million Texans’ private driving data to insurance companies without their knowledge or consent. In June, the Attorney General (AG) announced he had opened an investigation into several car manufacturers over allegations that the companies had improperly collected ...
- Hacked GPS tracker reveals location data of customers
August 19, 2024
Stalkerware researcher maia arson crimew strikes again. Big time. We know maia as a researcher that loves to go after stalkerware peddlers, which Malwarebytes—as one of the founding members of the Coalition Against Stalkerware—loves to see. The investigation into Tracki, besides uncovering a tangled web of companies, dubious websites, and false identities, also led to a ...
- How the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare went down: A timeline
August 17, 2024
A ransomware attack earlier this year on UnitedHealth-owned health tech company Change Healthcare likely stands as one of the largest data breaches of U.S. health and medical data in history. Months after the February data breach, a “substantial proportion of people living in America” are receiving notice by mail that their personal and health information was ...
- Hong Kong urged to fast-track privacy law reforms amid surge in data breaches
August 15, 2024
Hong Kong should speed up privacy law reforms aimed at penalising companies over data breaches, a cybersecurity expert and a lawmaker have said after hundreds of thousands of residents had their personal information exposed amid a spate of leaks. The calls were made on Thursday, a day after the city’s privacy watchdog launched an investigation into ...
- Kootenai Health cyber attack impacts 464,000 patients
August 15, 2024
US healthcare provider Kootenai Health has revealed that data belonging to 464,000 patients has been compromised following a cyber attack. The non-profit health system, based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, said it was alerted to a potential data breach in March 2024 after noticing “unusual activity that disrupted access to certain IT systems”. Following an investigation, Kootenai ...