Question

is data brokerage ethical or unethical? (one paragraph and supporting evidence for the point)

Answer 1

A data broker a.k.a. information broker or information reseller is basically a firm that is collect consumer data and sells to other business. Talking about their source of collecting data, data brokers make use of a variety of resources to gather information — it may be reward cards, website cookies, social media etc. These data that are sold by brokers are typically in the form of profiles and these profiles are sold to other businesses who are looking to target people for different ad campaigns. For many people across the world, data brokerage might be a very new term; however, this business model has become one of the most lucrative in this era — it is a $200 Billion industry. According to a source, across the world, there are more than 4000 data broker companies and one of the major one is Acxiom. The data brokerage industry has some of the shadiest instances. In 2013, a data broker was selling data lists of rape victims, alcoholics, and ‘erectile dysfunction sufferers’. This incident was so serious that, it brought data giants like Acxiom and Experian under the investigation light. Even though we have witnessed the shady side of data brokers, this business often operates following the law. The use of consumer reports for credit, insurance, or employment purposes (including background checks) are regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which was passed in 1970, is the law that allows you to access and correct errors in your credit report. It also means that users of consumer reports can only access that information in certain circumstances. But data brokers that aren’t considered consumer reporting agencies aren’t regulated in the same way. Data broker have become a serious concern about a lot of people in the world. And why not — when your data is up on the internet for sale, there is no way one cannot be worried. However, witnessing the shady events of the past, data brokerage has fallen under careful scrutiny and government of many nations have already started keeping an eye on the operations of these companies. if you come across data broker sites that are behaving unscrupulously, consider filing a complaint with the FTC. “Consumers can file a complaint with the FTC for any practices that a company is engaged in that they feel are unfair or harming them. But there is one more bitter truth, the internet is full of people who can do things beyond our imagination and one can never be 100% safe on the internet.