Showing posts with label Personal health data for sale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal health data for sale. Show all posts

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Your Personal Health Data Available Worldwide

 

I should know. I was a data broker in the junk mail industry for 35 years. In my later years in the business I preached protection of private information but no one listened. The situation had become so bad that I proposed that individuals should maintain ownership of their name and personal date and actually be paid for its use. My proposal, which was introduced on July 4, 2006, in my earlier blog, The Dunning Letter...
was completely antagonistic to junk mailers, the Direct marketing Assn., and many privacy groups whose purported purpose was to protect your name and personal data.

Here is an excerpt...

"There is only one answer to protecting our names and personal data, and holding Big Brother at bay when it comes to business and government usurping individual privacy. Orwell’s 1984 predicted it, and we are very close to fulfilling his prophesy, but Americans are beginning to see the light and the need to protect their inner sanctum."

Americans actually didn't "see the light" and the data selling business has roared

ahead at lightning speed and arrives at a point now where the sale of your mental health data is being promoted, bolstered by information gathered during the Covid pandemic. Washington Post researcher contacted data brokers to find out exactly what they sell...
"Joanne Kim reported that she ultimately found 11 companies willing to sell bundles of data that included information on what antidepressants people were taking, whether they struggled with insomnia or attention issues, and details on other medical ailments, including Alzheimer’s disease or bladder-control difficulties."

There's more from WaPo...

"One company advertised the names and home addresses of people with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress or bipolar disorder. Another sold a database featuring thousands of aggregated mental health records, starting at $275 per 1,000 'ailment contacts.'”

It's all about money. There is a fortune to be made in selling your private information. Just concerning personal health data, a Google search of that phrase brought up 171 million results. And by the way, I left the junk mail industry almost 25 years ago and a health database available then is still around today: Experian's Behaviorbank which offers a myriad of selections including "health problems." Trust me, there is no privacy today so live with it.

To close, you should know that the exposure of your private information is floating on clouds around the world.




 

 

Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday

  THAT'S TODAY... Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought the case to this point, now looking at a possible indictment. Trum...