Despite concerns about government surveillance, information market for consumer data intensifies … and you are selling for $0.0005 a pop

12 June 2013 – For the past three years the Financial Times has been running a series on … for lack of a better term … “data”.  Articles have appeared in its “Connected Business” section (6 editions a year), it’s “Cybersecurity” section (twice a year) and in its regular weekday and weekend editions.  Subjects have included EU data protection, the corporate competition to accumulate information about consumers, concerns about government surveillance (yes, before PRISM), unregulated companies that obtain information by scouring social networks and/or purchase histories and public records, the use and power of algorithms to determine/predict consumer behavior, etc., etc. We have included many references in our posts over the years.

Tomorrow’s regular edition of the FT has a corker of a story.  Despite all the growing concerns about government surveillance, the corporate competition to accumulate information about consumers is fierce, pushing down the market price for intimate personal details to fractions of a cent. As the FT has reported in previous articles, the surveillance of consumers has developed into a multibillion-dollar industry conducted by largely unregulated companies that obtain information by scouring web searches, social networks, purchase histories and public records, among other sources. Says the FT:

“The resulting dossiers include thousands of details about individuals, including personal ailments, credit scores and even due dates for pregnant women. Companies feed the details into algorithms to determine how to predict and influence consumer behavior. Basic age, gender and location information sells for as little as $0.0005 per person, or $0.50 per thousand people, according to price details seen by the Financial Times. Information about people believed to be “influential” within their social networks sells for $0.00075, or $0.75 per thousand people. Slightly more valuable are income details and shopping histories, which both sell for $0.001.

As basic information on consumers becomes ubiquitous, data brokers are tracking down even more details. For $0.26 per person, LeadsPlease.com sells the names and mailing addresses of people suffering from ailments such as cancer, diabetes and clinical depression. The information includes specific medications including cancer treatment drug Methotrexate and Paxil, the antidepressant, according to price details viewed by the FT.

Oh, and do I have a deal for you!! LeadsPlease offers a discount for bulk buyers. The price of a record drops to $0.14 if a buyer purchases 50,001 to 100,000 names.

And another player:

Another company, ALC Data, sells a list of consumers with specific ailments sorted by credit score. “In the current economy, targeting prospects who have good credit, bad credit or a lack of credit can dramatically affect results,” the company states in its marketing materials. Buyers of ALC’s “MH2 Credit Ailment Masterfile” in the past 12 months include Blue Cross Blue Shield, the insurance group, mobile operator Sprint Nextel and TXU Energy, the Texas energy utility, according to usage details on ALC’s website.

Oh, and they are running a special. ALC also tracks more than 80 per cent of all US births and competes fiercely against other data brokers in the baby sector. The company recently unveiled a new “Newborn Network” database containing information about prenatal and postnatal mothers, as well as their aunts, grandmothers, close friends and neighbors.

The US Federal Trade Commission and a congressional committee are investigating the data broker industry to understand what these companies know and how the information is used. But as we have mentioned in previous posts, few laws exist in the U.S. that protect the privacy of an individual’s data.