Consumer Watchdog Report Shows That Less Than 1% Of Californians Exercise Privacy Rights With Data Brokers

(MENAFN- PR Newswire) Data Brokers Collect Your Location, Share It With Companies and Law Enforcement

Opting Out Isn't Easy But Here's How That's Changing

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the strongest state laws in the nation empowering consumers to take control of their personal information, less than 1 percent of Californians have exercised their rights with major data brokers in 2023, according to a report by Consumer Watchdog analyzing new California data broker reporting requirements.

Consumer Watchdog broke down the opt out numbers of some of the biggest data brokers in the world: Experian, Acxiom, and LiveRamp. Per the Delete Act,
data brokers operating in California as of July must now
annually report the number of requests to delete, correct, access, limit and opt out of collected data.

Read Consumer Watchdog's report "Data Stalkers" here.

Watch a Consumer Alert here .

This summer, the data broker National Public Data was subject to perhaps
the biggest hack in history, exposing 2.7 billion pieces of data, including the social security number of potentially every American.

"Consumers are at a greater risk for identity theft with data brokers, but they don't have a simple way to opt out," said Justin
Kloczko, tech and privacy advocate for Consumer Watchdog.

"Part of the reason Californians aren't opting in high numbers is because these rights aren't user friendly, as opting out has to be done website by website, and that takes forever," said Kloczko.

Starting in 2026, however, Californians will be able to delete all the data a broker collects about them in one step, under Senate Bill 362, the Delete Act (Becker), signed last year.

"The 2026 universal opt out will make it much easier to delete data," said Kloczko. "Governor Newsom also has the opportunity to sign legislation requiring browsers to send opt out signals, allowing consumers to exercise rights in one step."

Assembly Bill 3048 (Lowenthal) would force web browsers to allow users to signal all their privacy preferences for data collected directly by businesses. Currently Chrome and Safari don't allow that. Data brokers also collect first-party data, not just third-party data, said the advocacy group.

In California, close to 500 data brokers are in operation, and residents can
look up
a list of data brokers see what categories of personal information they collect, and where to delete personal information.

Data brokers may have a lower profile than other companies that vacuum up data like Facebook or Google, but
t hey know more
about us, including social security numbers and geolocation. And they share data with tech, insurance and financial services companies, as well as government agencies, the nonprofit found.

Kloczko requested the data held on him by
Experian ,
Acxiom ,
and
LiveRamp , and the results were alarming.

"These data brokers keep incredibly detailed profiles on me spanning hundreds of pages," said
Kloczko. "They contain inferences about my finances, family, eating and exercise habits, down to how likely I am to get a vaccine or subscribe to a streaming service. And a lot of it is wrong."

The reports made numerous incorrect inferences about Kloczko's
ethnicity, finances,
and consumer preferences.

From most tech companies-Amazon, Netflix, Google and
Uber-to auto manufacturers-Toyota, Nissan, Chevy-to fast food chains-McDonalds, Starbucks and Subway-data brokers make predictions about you for virtually every popular brand. Companies want to know every detail about you with the hopes of keeping you glued to your phone so you buy products, said Consumer Watchdog.

One data broker, LiveRamp,
said it sends data to Amazon, Disney, Fox, Comcast, Google, Uber and Warner Bros, among others, Consumer Watchdog found. Experian said it
sources
geolocation data from apps on your phone, and discloses it to "law enforcement," "financial services," "insurance companies" and "regulatory authorities," among others.

You can access your data from LiveRamp and
delete it here.

To exercise your data rights with
Experian,
go here.

For
Acxiom,
go here.

Data brokers collect and sell dossiers on hundreds of millions of consumers and make billions in profit. Experian has data on
1 billion
people and makes
$7
billion in annual profit . Equifax has data on 800 million people and makes
$5 billion
in revenue.
LiveRamp collects data on 700 million people and makes $660 million in revenue. Acxiom has data on 190 million individuals and makes
$617 million in revenue.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog

WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE? 440k+
Newsrooms &
Influencers 9k+
Digital Media
Outlets 270k+
Journalists
Opted In GET STARTED

MENAFN12092024003732001241ID1108667754