Consumer data companies are scooping up huge amounts of consumer information about people around the world and selling it, providing marketers details about whether you’re pregnant or divorced or trying to lose weight, about how rich you are and what kinds of cars you drive. But many people still don’t know data brokers exist.
“This documentary should be mandatory viewing for everyone who uses the internet.” John Ford, Slug Magazine
Admit it: you don’t really read the endless terms and conditions connected to every website you visit or app you download. But every day, billion-dollar corporations are learning more about your interests, your friends and family, your finances, and your secrets, and they’re not only selling the information to the highest bidder, but also sharing it with the government. And you agreed to all of it. What, if anything, you can do about it.
When Max Kelly, the chief security officer for Facebook, left the company in 2010, he did not go to Google or Twitter. Instead the man who was responsible for protecting the personal information of Facebook’s more than one billion users from outside attacks went to work for another institution that analyzes large pools of data: the N.S.A..
Several US Government agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and non-profit organizations have joined in an effort to provide consumers useful, easy-to-understand information on Internet safety.
BlueCava provides the digital advertising industry with technology that addresses the challenges of identifying, targeting and measuring mobile audiences across screens and channels.
Ashkan Soltani is an independent researcher and consultant focused on privacy, security, and behavioral economics. His work draws attention to privacy problems online, demystifies technology for the non-technically inclined, and provides data-driven insights to help inform policy.
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