IDI Has Built a Profile on Every American Adult
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
I fully acknowledge they utilize the information they mine about you to optimize their ad networks, but that's quite a bit different from releasing the information for a price.
There's a pretty big difference. Facebook and Google would not be in business if they let third parties aggregate their detailed personal records.
That said, I agree there's nothing particularly newsworthy in there. These companies have existed for a long time.
Mine ran to over 60 pages.
https://personalreports.lexisnexis.com/access_your_full_file...
They had every address (and a few extra!) I've lived at in my life. They had the address I'd stayed at with relatives for 6 weeks between moves. The email address I used to purchase (I use a unique email address per place I give an email to, eg store_name@mydomain.com) stuff from: jcrew, ebags, performance bike. They had multiple sources for address information, including the CRAs, USPS, E-merges (voter registration), Neustar, Alloy Media, and a dozen companies I've never heard of. They had college records from Alloy Media. They had emails for my partner. They had deed information for most places I've lived. They had CLUE information -- all car insurance claims -- for me and for people I've shared car insurance with.
They had spaces for FAA licensing, hunting/fishing licenses, lawsuits, payday loans, watercraft, ATF (gun) licenses and investigations, marriage licenses, and sex offender status.
related: we also live in a world increasingly of "wallet-based pricing/acceptance". which means, if someone (a vendor, a thief) might charge you a higher price (or be more likely to attack/steal from you) if they have reason to believe you are upper income, then, you want to minimize how much information they have about you, esp about your identity. For example, if you're a software engineer by profession, you never ever want a vendor to know your profession (or your name, if a google of that can lead to your profession, eg.) before you hear from them the price, or the "availability" of the product. I'd love to think we live in a world where that shouldn't matter. But an increasing amount of the evidence I've seen, with my own eyes/ears (not theory, not second-hand), is consistent with having to take that into account.
generally, the less the other party in a transaction (vendor, fellow citizen, etc.) knows about you, as an individual, the more likely you are to receive an objectively fair/neutral price/response. They think you're poor? Decline. They think are minority? Decline. They think you have higher income/wealth? Higher price. They think you have lower income/wealth? Suddenly not available for <reasons>.
It would be funny if you sent in the form and then if you weren't in the system, they'd just photocopy the form and send it back to you with a "thank you" note.
Funny side story about them: I tried to interview there once, many years ago. They have this antiquated in-house developed query language -- a skill you couldn't transfer anywhere. So you'd sort of be stuck there, for life.
Up-front said would force me to works on weekends, for what already was looking like a miserable pay. As if living in Dayton, Ohio wouldn't have been enough punishment.
Best part was the future manager made a joke about how she likes to "crack her whip sometimes", which made the other engineer in the room laugh ... nervously. Was half expecting him pull me to the side and whisper "escape while you still can".
That might actually be worth it if the original comment is correct and they have ~60 pages of information available on file per person.
Anyhow, I didn't provide my ssn, just drivers license plus my current address on a utility bill. I'm sure CA has already sold them the drivers license data anyway.
Side note: if you did have an outstanding debt, a collection agency might serve the wrong person. This could trigger a law suit... Or some sort grief for some undeserving person. :(
Hmm.
There are a lot of players in this space, and everyone that I've evaluated so far is basically selling astrology (i.e. profiles that could match 60% of the attributes of any sample of the population).
I wish people tried harder to reduce click bait titles.
OTOH, I'm sure it will be covered by Buzzfeed. I'll even provide a nice click bait title for them to A/B test: "This company you've never heard of knows every personal detail about you."
I'd like a browser extension that uses NLP to identify and hide clickbait headlines.
I wish people tried harder to reduce click bait titles.
Then you have Q Interactive which they also bought which was largely known for clickgen.com and coolsavings.com Like Fluent they are big in co-registration, lead generation, data collection & sales, affiliate marketing etc.
That's really a tiny bit of the data that gets traded on consumers every day. All kinds of transactions get logged and sold. Credit card declined transactions are an example that surprises many people however it's the kind of data that debt consolidation, pre-paid debit card and credit management companies love.
The insurance companies themselves are fairly empty pass-thru companies for a lot policy types. They all use the same forms, call centers, models, brokers. So the reinsurance companies make sure the models are good.
Right. Think of the children and the terrorists.
Some neighbor doesn't like how you cut the grass -- calls the tip line telling them he saw you build bombs in your basement. Your house is raided, yet no one will be punished because they can claim "But I was thinking of our country and safety".