How Data Brokers Sell Your Identity

By: Morgan Hack

Who has your information and what are they using it for?

Tech journalist Madhumita Murgia recently piqued my interest in what data brokers do when I watched her TED talk, “How Data Brokers Sell Your Identity”. Murgia gives her audience a detailed profile of herself including personal information such as vacations, previous addresses, daily whereabouts, and salary, all of which were gathered by personal data trackers. Not only do these large companies have pivotal information about Muria’s life but also key characteristics of her personality. Murgia began a journey of uncovering what data trackers know. 

Who are these companies? What are they doing with my information? 

You are the product, a product that produces a data package to be sold. “Data brokering is a multi-pound industry of companies that collect, package, and sell detailed profiles of individuals based on their online activity,” Murgia says. We all know about how our phones monitor our use of things such as maps, search, Facebook, and payment methods, and when you combine this with public records all of a sudden you have a lot of personal information. Murgia shares with us that you can be uniquely identified with just three pieces of information: date of birth, zip code, and gender. As we all know these three identifying factors are very easy to procure about an individual. These three pieces of information can be traded freely because they are not considered personal but pseudonymous. 

A great well-known example of how data brokers have used our information is Cambridge Analytica, a well-known media analytics company that was tasked with winning the election for Donald Trump. The company employed cookies online to track people around the web. They used this to get to know their audience’s inner feelings about target advertisements. In 2015 Samsung was found recording people in their homes using their TVs voice recognition systems. We have all had experiences when we have been talking about a product out loud and later on it has shown up as an advertisement. 

What does Google Know?

We would like to believe that Google has our best interest at heart, but most of the most reputable companies such as Google sell our information. Google makes what they track about you very accessible. I decided to test this out. Google lets you view your “Activity Controls” which is basically a stalker book of everywhere and everything you have done on your Google account. The first Activity Control is Ad Settings. Here are my accounts ad personalization setting based on what content Google believes I want to see.

Most of what is shown here are not accurate. I have a cat, drive a BMW, and am a female but that is about all that is accurate. This is just the data that Google is choosing to show that they have collected about us. Other Activity Controls include Google maps timeline, web activity, and YouTube history. Muria explains that in the UK data protection laws are in place but the only way citizens are protected is the assurance that their name and insurance number is stripped. 

Realistic ways you can protect yourself

As long as your phone is turned on you can be tracked. It is unrealistic to stop using social media which would be the only way to protect yourself. Muria explains that having knowledge about data brokers is empowering in itself. Knowing how your data is collected and shared makes you more responsible for where you put your personal information. Here are additional ways to protect yourself: 

• Stop signing up for free services 
• Check app permissions in settings
• Get others to care, as we do we can demand control over our own data. ​