Thats All Folks!

Hello Everyone!  This will be the final post of Crystal Clear.  It has been a pleasure writing for all five of you (Shout out to Professor Hoffman, you the realest)!  Here, we will wrap up our arguments and share our closing thoughts, so close your other tabs because its about to get real!

–Terms and Conditions.  Read them you dummy! Companies outline what data they are collecting and how they plan on using it.  Now this isn’t to say that they should be trusted, but they will certainly give you more information before just clicking that box. The sad truth is that many companies make their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy documents unnecessarily lengthy and worded in a special litigative way that allow them to do things you don’t think they could. Despite the daunting challenge this may pose, think carefully before you click without reading them. You probably wouldn’t be willing to exchange your address, name, contact information, and internet browsing history to a total stranger in exchange for the ability to play some silly game on your iPhone, right? Keep that in mind the next time you want to sign up for that weird site you’ll never visit again, or download that trendy free game everyone seems to have but will be done with next week. #thinkbeforeyouclick

–Data Brokers, unfortunately, are a real thing.  These companies collect, organize, repackage and then distribute personal information and data.  They are the bane of my existence and could, some day, be the bane of yours as well. Some of the data they aggregate is your banking history, what you buy or even think about buying all compiled up into this nifty thing called a shadow credit score that could one day swing around and screw you over when trying to get a loan. Or, better yet, your teen years in which you googled some not so savory subjects are recorded and a part of your background information when your future dream job goes to check you out. You could be a good kid, great grades, nice work experience, but the curious phase you went through? If you’ve googled some weird stuff in college, you might not be hired. Scary, huh? Don’t forget there’s options like Tor and various VPNs that anonymize your browsing experience. Your connection might be slowed but privacy is priceless.

–Cookies, they’re delicious and malicious, a perfectly balanced snack.  When you log on to a website, your browser downloads and stores cookies.  They are small pieces of data that help websites recognize your computer.  When used properly, they actually are extremely useful.  When you tell a website to remember your username and/or password, that info is stored in a cookie.  Quick and convenient.  Originally most cookies acted like this, adding functionality to the web browsing experience.  However, as time passed and the internet matured, cookies took on a new role.  Today, they play a large part in the tracking of users.  Sites like CNN for example inject multiple cookies into your computer, theirs and those of advertisers and other third parties.  Quickly, your metaphorical cookie jar becomes a collection of your browsing history.  Both the websites you’ve navigated to and the ads you’ve clicked conveniently stored away.  Sneakily, some cookies take advantage of this collection and send all of this information back to their masters.  Boom! Your online experience is in the hands of online advertisers and the like, while your left with only crumbs.

Long story short, read the TOS of every site you use, account or not, and always #thinkbeforeyouclick! We hope you’ve enjoyed your time with us, because we sure have.

Getting to Know You: An Affirmative View

“Everything people do online is avidly followed by advertisers and third-party trackers,” according to the “Data: Getting to Know You” article featured back in September 2014 on http://www.economist.com. In this day and age, many people are becoming increasingly more aware of how their information is gathered and exposed on the internet with each new web page that they join or account that they create. This article in particular compares this ever-growing information culture to “Divergent,” a book series and Hollywood film in which humans are categorized for life based upon their aptitudes and values. Yet while the world of online advertizing and data gatekeeping may not be as structured, I agree with the idea that gathering information about users and grouping them into sellable “segments” has become a large component of business in today’s society.

The article discusses how we as a society and world are in an information war. It is 100% about having more information about the customer than another company, and thus being able to generate more commerce as a result of having this greater knowledge.

The internet has increasingly made it easier to gather data about users because of users leaving traces wherever they go. Facebook and Twitter contain codes within the “Like” and “Tweet” buttons that enables to social-networking companies to track users’ movements and interests, according to the article. What remains in question is whether or not users are fully aware of websites doing this.

Quick quiz to see if you’ve been keeping up with our posts: Who are the people who collect our data that can be found on the internet?

If you’ve forgotten, they’re called data brokers. And they earn their living by helping advertisers and publishers manage their data, as well as selling them more data about users (that’s you, by the way). Most consumers have never heard of the companies that make a full-time business of gathering data about them, but they are aware of the firms that do it as a sideline. So many people are quick to say they “have nothing to hide” and go on to wonder “why should I care?” There’s actually a whole wikipedia page dedicated to that train of thought, called the Nothing to Hide argument. Uneducated internet users will tout this all the time, unaware that the legality of their activity isn’t at stake. When it comes down to it, it doesn’t necessarily matter what it is you’re doing, but how that information is being used.  The economist article best vocalizes how people should become increasingly more aware about how their data is used, bought, and everything related to ways that their personal information is transmitted around the web. We as humans constantly need to be in the know about who sees our personal information and how it is distributed.

Marketplace.org provides a few tips as to how you can avoid some of this data ever being collected in the first place. Even if you have nothing to hide it’s not a bad idea to heed to some of these suggestions, namely using non tracking search engines like Duckduck.org and making sure to always read the Terms of Service even if they’re lengthy and obnoxious. (#thinkbeforeyouclick anyone?) Other suggestions, while seeming obvious, are easily forgettable but can be helpful in protecting your privacy–namely clearing out your cookies and browser caches and using different email addresses when signing up for sites and services. If you’re not expecting a confirmation email you can use websites like 10minutemail.com to create a super temporary address to sign up with.

Overall, people know that their data essentially is never private – we constantly sign up for new things on a regular basis and consistently advertise our private lives with just a few clicks and a “create new account” button. But, it is important that we know how our data is transmitted, who is doing it (and seeing it), and for what purpose. That is how we will develop trust and know that our information is used for a good purpose – and that is simply to enhance business and the economy.

Broker Breakdown

Now that we’ve introduced Data Brokers to you and affirmed the criticisms pertaining to them, I’m going to show you what one of the Data Broker company execs has to say about his company and industry at large. Then I’m going to tell you why he’s wrong.

Brian Kennedy, CEO of Epsilon Data Management was featured in the 60 Minutes segment, The Data Brokers.  Epsilon claims to have the world’s largest working database and is a leader in their field. During his interview, Brian made various statements regarding regulation, consumers, and the Internet as a whole.
Mr. Kennedy states that he “see[s] no need for more oversight or regulation in one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy.” Honestly, I couldn’t disagree more.  What harm would regulation do? Kennedy likely thinks that regulation will harm data collection companies.  Restrictions on collection and use of data can only cost them money  and likely force them to stop performing some of their more unsavory business practices. It would protect consumers and users and allow for them to use the internet without fearing every site they visit being tacked on to their dossiers. The point of the matter is this: there is great need for regulations to protect consumers from data broker companies. The government is not in place to assist with a company’s bottom line, or to make it easier for it to operate at maximum profit. The government exists to provide checks on institutions so that the little guy (that would be us, by the way) don’t get bulldozed over. What makes Kennedy’s claim truly egregious is the fact that this “sector of the economy” he’s talking about is collecting and selling private information about people.

Mr.Kennedy also stated that he thought “self regulation [had] been very effective.” Well…of course the CEO of a Data Broker company would find self-regulation effective. That’s like putting a bunch of toddlers in a room full of candy and expecting them to self-regulate. We all know they’d rush in and take everything they could get their greedy little hands on and that fact stands true for Kennedy and his fellow Data Broker execs.

Everyone has their own opinion about what the internet is.  Kennedy wants you to know “that consumers need to understand that the internet is an advertising medium.”  This is rather ridiculous. The internet is plagued by advertising; there’s a reason people install applications like ad-block that remove all ads from their browsing experience. People do not like ads. People do not use the internet to view ads, and advertising should certainly not be considered some kind of inherent backbone to the internet. The internet has so many incredible, wonderful uses, and advertising is like the bacterial growth feeding on the internet’s underbelly. It’s inane to even make a claim like that, and it’s down right disturbing that he seemed to really believe it.

What’s so hilariously ironic about all of this is that Kennedy goes on to claim that he doesn’t put information about himself online ,”and I am a consumer like you are.” I really love how the Data Broker company CEO is saying that he doesn’t participate in the overarching online activity that makes his company even possible.

Sorry buddy, but even cigarette executives smoke.

Data Brokers: What They Are & Why You Should Care

So we’ve talked about how necessary it is for companies to maintain data transparency, and we’ve discussed the insane amount of information they collect and circulate, but what we haven’t gone into yet is the role of the data-mining companies themselves. Today we’re going to fix that, while also introducing some additional big data terminology to your lexicon.

As this 2012 CNN article explains, there are companies out there, fondly termed data brokers, that “collect things like contact information, demographics and your preferences on things” and then “aggregate that information to try to discern a picture of what people want.” CBS News defines them as “collecting, analyzing and packaging some of our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodity…to each other, to advertisers, even the government, often without our direct knowledge.” FYI, I’m not talking about Facebook anymore. No, this is that mysterious “third party” that you’ll find in nearly every TOS you’ve ever agreed to, it’s the all-knowing “them” I’ve referred to in every post. The CNN article introduces one such company called Acxiom. In an interview with the reporter, Acxiom CEO Scott Howe proudly offered the above quotes I used as a definition for data brokers while going on to explain the necessity of his company’s services. Thankfully, the article’s author goes on to report the many potential issues with these data brokers, particularly these following points:

1. “the average consumer has no idea that their intimate personal details are up for sale on these sites”

My bets are on the fact that you never knew Acxiom existed.But Acxiom knows your name, number, where you live, your gender and all the things you like and don’t like. You’ve never visited their site, and yet they’ve got a nice fat folder with your name on it, for sale to their various clients.

2. “data mining could open the door to hacking, identity theft and stalking.”

What companies like Acxiom do, and what all data brokers do, is create these enormous dossiers containing a lot of really important information on you. It doesn’t matter if you have “nothing to hide,” any law abiding citizen can have their entire lives hacked away by anyone savvy enough with a computer to get into whichever data mining company they so choose.  A security researcher from Dell SecureWorks explains that, “just basic information…can lead predators to potential victims… That’s a common scenario, actually.”

The article goes on to state several more critiques and I definitely recommend reading it if you’ve got some time.

The funny thing about these data brokers is that they seem to float in this mysterious grey area, a giant legislative question mark surrounds what they do and how they do it. There’s no federal regulation encouraging them to encrypt the information they have on you or otherwise keep it protected. CBS News explains that data brokers have always been around, but have grown immensely in volume as of late. What used to be somewhat harmless collections from surveys and phone calls has become malicious and dangerous. The author explains, “No one even knows how many companies there are trafficking in our data. But it’s certainly in the thousands, and would include research firms, all sorts of Internet companies, advertisers, retailers and trade associations. The largest data broker is Acxiom, a marketing giant that brags it has, on average, 1,500 pieces of information on more than 200 million Americans.” Can you even imagine what 1500 pieces of information on you would look like?

Data Brokers are viewed with plenty of criticism, which is something we are extremely happy to see. It’s great that big news names like CNN and CBS News are educating their readers about Big Data and explaining the numerous consequences that follow in data mining companies’ wake. Hopefully this post has helped clarify all those “them”s I’ve been referencing, while making the chain of information a little clearer.

There are some tools out there you can use to reduce the amount of information these companies have, such as Abine, a company that claims to quite literally “remove your information from data broker sites.” Of course this service comes at a cost, and cannot guarantee that everything will be found and removed. So remember, as always #thinkbeforeyouclick and be careful what you do online. Nothing is private, and you never know who’s watching.