Ok here's some more and I know this is not feel good stuff at all but I do it as an awareness and last night I had the chance to talk to someone that was formerly in this business who also has a nice fat retirement too, so keep that in mind.
The FTC finally makes one tiny dent with a fine of $1 million for one the the data brokers and he can't pay so judge reduces his bill to $60k..huge...if you are a consumer with $1 million in medical bills on the other hand, you get to go to bankruptcy court. I sent this on to a couple members of Congress who are looking into this.
I have republished some of what I wrote below..to include the Data Dealer game..made to exploit and bring attention to this computer code assault via "scoring" consumers.
Two Data Brokers Get Fined by the FTC For Non Compliance, One Gets Most All Of The Million Dollar Fine Reduced as They Could Not Afford To Pay By the Court, But If You Are A Consumer With Medical Bills You Go To Bankruptcy Court..
You can read the link on my story about Google's algorithm saying I was a "real" duck and my real name that works everywhere in the world didn't work over there and they suspended me, so that's a ticker there too, "machine compliant names"..keep that thought as the info and data attacks continue.
One heck of a deal is it not but if a consumer can’t pay medical bills they go all the way to bankruptcy.image The one company fined a million gets is written off and down to $60,000.00. What a rip! They had flawed data out there which is becoming a huge problem all over the place due to the data selling epidemic. How about a game of Data Dealer…this was made to exploit the epidemic…
“YOUR MISSION”
Become a data dealer and get all the dirty details on your friends, neighbors and the rest of the world. Learn how to trick your users and make cash with their personal data!
1) Build your own data empire: Collect the best data delicacies from your underground sources and create companies and online ventures.
2) Turn data into cash: Collect millions of profiles...with sweepstakes, dating agencies, online personality tests and your own social web.
3) Every dirty detail counts: Turn your database into a money machine! Even the tiniest details could be worth their weight in gold.
4) Rise from small-time back room data dealer to become a mighty data mogul!”
InfoTrack, the one that received the big fine was providing inaccurate information suggesting some were registered sex offenders.
You can go file a complaint at the FTC but we still don’t know who all the data sellers are and what they sell, need to begin licensing all data sellers which would include companies, banks, etc. and provide a site where we can look up who they sell to and what kind of data they sell. You can read the detail below but Checkmate didn’t even require users to identify themselves at all.
I think it’s gone too far and folks are stuck in virtual worlds and forget about the real world out there. Advertising is out of control and again when I follow the Google suggestions on their analytics, doesn’t make one bit of difference on my Ad-sense at all, just an algorithm doing something. After a Google algorithm said I was real duck and suspended me and couldn’t even connect me on their own Blogger platform where I had been for 6 years, the credibility being sold here I feel has some pretty big error margins.
“I’m Sorry Your Google Plus Name Does Not Comply With Google “Names Policies”…Barbara “Duck Algorithm” & Was Using My Real Name All Along…Killer Algorithms Chapter 52
Here’s the latest to where we have this absolute burning mission to follow you to the store from your computer..nuts and over done. I have no problem with tracking purchases as stores and online sites do that anyway, but the real world is out there suffering while this over rated virtual ad world exposure emphasis keeps growing.
Data brokers in 2012 brought in $150 BILLION with a “B”…so what was last year, even more? Is is over $200 billion now or more?
We have a real problem with folks and “The Grays” to where the addiction to stats and numbers and the growing error rates are going to disappoint many I feel while the rich become wealthier. Scroll down to the footer, watch some videos and see how Wall Street does it with math models and formulas, same thing here just different data that makes money out of thin air.
Google Partnering With Data Brokers Acxiom And Others To Follow You Around While You Shop On a Test Project-Data Selling Data Businesses Benefit And Tech Companies Operate Off Shore Tax Havens-Do Google and Facebook Pay US Taxes on This Revenue?
Here’s a report from the World Privacy Forum worth reading,a guy loses a job because his Klout score was too low? Junk science continues to grow. BD