Article by Frederick
Lah and Michael E. Strauss.
On May 27, 2014, the FTC released its report "
Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability".
In the report, the FTC advocates for more transparency from data
brokers, defined in the report as "companies that collect
consumers' personal information and resell or share that
information with others."
Expounding upon findings from its "
2012 privacy report, and gleaning new information from nine
data brokers, the Commission's latest paper characterizes data
brokers and their products as both beneficial and risky to
consumers. While the FTC did acknowledge that data brokers'
marketing products – for example, the sale of consumer data
to businesses – "improve product offerings, and deliver
tailored advertisements to consumers," its praise of the
industry was short-lived. Instead, the FTC emphasized risk, noting
that data brokers are storing delicate consumer information, which
in the event of a security
