Here are three background papers on data brokers / information re-sellers:
U.S. Senate (2013)
U.S. Government Accountability Office (2013)
Congressional Research Service (2007)
Copyright: CNBC
Copyright: CNBC
ChoicePoint Chairman and CEO Derek Smith made a distinction between the right to privacy and the right to anonymity … he accepted the former but not the latter. The debate over the right to privacy came up in the 1890s in the context of another new technology - photography … and its use in newspapers.
Recent inventions and business methods call attention to … what Judge Cooley calls the right "to be let alone".
Instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprise have invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life; and numerous mechanical devices threaten to make good the prediction that "what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the house-tops." For years there has been a feeling that the law must afford some remedy for the unauthorized circulation of portraits of private persons; ... and the evil of invasion of privacy by the newspapers
In mid-Dec last year I was invited to talk by Eamon Kelly and Andrew Blau of GBN which is part of Monitor. GBN works on futures and in addition to the usual ecology / climate change / renewable energy they mentioned ubiquitous technology and connectivity. Later during discussions around the table the regional head of an agri-business company said he figures information has no value. Hmm ... maybe ... but consolidating scattered little bits of information has huge value.
ChoicePoint was bought out by LexisNexis (Reed Elsevier) in 2008 for US$3.5 billion ... these folks use supercomputers to gather, analyze and consolidate information. Another big player is Acxiom. These companies provide important services but are also controversial ... particularly from a privacy perspective. Here is a news report by the (late) Peter Jennings on what's being collected about you (in the U.S. anyways). Former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy said: "Privacy is dead - get over it!"