Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individuals?

[jamesrage]

Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individuals?

Yes as long as they get consent of the individual.
Only if they get consent from the individual without coercion.
No
Other
I do not know.






What Story Does Your Personal Data Tell? - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/business/ftc-seeks-privacy-legislation.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/t...nsumer-database-marketing.html?pagewanted=all
Fact Sheet: Plan to Protect Privacy in the Internet Age by Adopting a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights | The White House






I believe companies should be banned from collecting personal data on private citizens. Big corporate spying on you is just as bag as big government spying on you. I don't believe they should be allowed to collect and sell personal data because there will always be people who don't give a rats ass about their privacy and as a result those people will **** everyone else.

 

[Helix]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

only with the consent of the customer, and even then, the selling of that data should be highly regulated.

for instance, do i mind that some stores track what i buy in order to send me targeted advertising? i find it slightly annoying, but i don't really mind. however, do i want my grocery store selling my shopping list to my health and life insurance companies so they can raise or lower my rates accordingly? yes, i mind, and that would be a dealbreaker for me with any store or credit card.

people need to be adequately informed about what data is being collected, who is doing it, and what it is being used for.

 

[MaggieD]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individuals?

Yes as long as they get consent of the individual.
Only if they get consent from the individual without coercion.
No
Other
I do not know.






What Story Does Your Personal Data Tell? - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/business/ftc-seeks-privacy-legislation.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/t...nsumer-database-marketing.html?pagewanted=all
Fact Sheet: Plan to Protect Privacy in the Internet Age by Adopting a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights | The White House






I believe companies should be banned from collecting personal data on private citizens. Big corporate spying on you is just as bag as big government spying on you.

We have privacy laws protecting some of our data -- medical information comes to mind. I have no problem with companies collecting my name/address/internet purchases/charge purchases, etc. If your talking about a credit application, including your income/assets/social security number, I think that ought to be illegal. And maybe it is. But the rest of it? Some people may have a problem with it, but it doesn't bother me.

 

[Paschendale]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

Collect, yes. And it should be completely confidential and not shared with anyone. It certainly shouldn't be sold for profit.

 

[tessaesque]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

I don't want my information sold to 3rd parties. What the company itself does with my information? Whatever.

But let me tell you: When we signed our closing papers SOMEBODY involved in the process sold our basic information (names, address, housing type) to a pool of companies who then used it to bombard us with advertisements and promotional offers for a plethora of services. I've received flyers from 15 different local dentists, twice that many lawn care companies, probably 20 different life insurance companies...it's frustrating.

And anything beyond the tiny bit of info that was sold above is a massive invasion of my privacy. So no thank you.

I'm cool w/Tom Thumb tracking my sales to offer me specific coupons and specials (it saved me 38% on groceries this weekend!)...FTR.

 

[clownboy]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

Collect, yes. And it should be completely confidential and not shared with anyone. It certainly shouldn't be sold for profit.

That's why I steer clear of the social networking crap (Facebook, twitter, etc). It's part of their business model.

 

[DaveFagan]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

I think companies that make their job collecting info should be legal, like Private Investigation. That's a job. Any company that is just profiting from personal info that is not really a Investigative agency should be disallowed. It's a tough question in a computer world. Information is king and potentially profitable. Nevertheless, the individual can generate as much false info as their keyboard skills will allow. If that is what they want.

 

[Smeagol]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

We have privacy laws protecting some of our data -- medical information comes to mind. I have no problem with companies collecting my name/address/internet purchases/charge purchases, etc. If your talking about a credit application, including your income/assets/social security number, I think that ought to be illegal. And maybe it is. But the rest of it? Some people may have a problem with it, but it doesn't bother me.

Privacy in 2012 is a thing of the past.

Medical privacy? I suppose in theory but communities are made up of people and people work for the doctors offices, hospitals and pharmacies. Guess what else? People talk, usually with the qualifier: "don't tell anyone I told you this but...". I've had my medical privacy violated thusly. The pharmacy I use has a little floor mat roughly three whole feet from the check out counter that says "HIPPA Compliant. Please wait here to in consideration of the privacy of other patrons". Its an absolute joke.

E-readers? You can't even read a book without data being collected about you. I heard a news report that said not only do people like Amazon keep track of your literary preferences, their e-readers are designed to keep a log of when you read and even how fast of a reader you are.

Finances? With the advent of credit and debit cards your bank not only has records on what you buy and for how much but they can monitor your movement and travel indicated by where you engage in commerce.

Unwittingly giving others access to your privacy? Ever use those customer reward cards to save a little at the cash register? Ever take advantage of a mail in or online rebate? Tabs are being kept on you and records stored each time you do. I was once looking up a friend's address online and did a search on their name. Somehow an electronics store's rebate customer list ended on on the Internet at a txt page. Nothing fancy but I could clearly see my friend had recently purchased something and got a rebate. I knew it was him because his phone number was listed along with the item purchased, date it was purchased, etc.

Online court records? This is one of the most amazing. My buddy forgot the amount of money he had to pay in alimony vs. child support and his daughter moved back home with him and didn't want to send money to his ex-wife that she wasn't owed. He asked ME to look it up for him online. Everything from speeding tickets to a copy of your mortgage to your marriage license is online for all to see.

Its all a product of the computer age. I don't like it but I doubt anything can be done about it.

 

[molten_dragon]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

I think companies should be required to get permission from an individual before collecting and storing their personal data, and with a few exceptions, they should not be able to pull crap like "You can't use this service unless you allow us to collect your personal information". I also think it should be illegal for companies to sell that data to 3rd parties without permission of the individual in question as well.

 

[Ikari]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

I believe companies should be banned from collecting personal data on private citizens. Big corporate spying on you is just as bag as big government spying on you. I don't believe they should be allowed to collect and sell personal data because there will always be people who don't give a rats ass about their privacy and as a result those people will **** everyone else.

I 100% agree, those are my Papers and as such I have the right to secure them against unreasonable search and seizure. It's time to expand the 4th to encompass the change in technology.

 

[DiAnna]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

No, they should not. I'm sick of being bombarded by junk mail, solicitation phone calls, spam e-mail every time one of us has a "special" birthday, purchases a certain item, or calls to ask about information on insurance, potential purchases, or buys something from a website.

 

[Carjosse]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

No, under any circumstance.

 

[radcen]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

I think companies should be required to get permission from an individual before collecting and storing their personal data, and with a few exceptions, they should not be able to pull crap like "You can't use this service unless you allow us to collect your personal information". I also think it should be illegal for companies to sell that data to 3rd parties without permission of the individual in question as well.

...and if they do sell it, I should get a cut.

 

[molten_dragon]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

...and if they do sell it, I should get a cut.

Well, that can definitely be part of the negotiation between you and the company before you give them your permission.

 

[Fiddytree]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

Personally, what frequently results to consent is practically wrapped up in a long EULA that can frequently change at the whim of the company, and as such the customer is unaware.

 

[teamosil]

Re: Should companies be allowed to collect and sell personal data of private individu

Notice and consent policies are pretty meaningless. For example, by viewing this post right now, you are technically consenting to something on the order of 15,000 pages of terms and conditions. Snippets of code that are incorporated into some driver that you didn't even know you installed come with terms and conditions that you are agreeing to by using a computer that has the driver installed. Those terms might be in a text file somewhere on your system, but more likely, you would need to go to the website of the company that made the driver to see what you agreed to. It is a ridiculous fiction designed to make it sound like what they are doing is acceptable- hey, they consented to it... But, even if you spent the say 3 months it would take to find all the terms and conditions you're agreeing to just by powering up your computer, it still wouldn't help you. They don't make sense to a layman. They are crammed full of words that have legal impacts that don't align with what the word actually means. For example, maybe some court decision 5 years ago said that companies can do such and such a thing to their customers, but only if the customers use the product in a "sustained manner" or something, so then the company will put a line in the terms saying "I agree that my use of this product is sustained". That would mean nothing to the reader, but could actually turn out to mean that you're agreeing to let them sell your data or who knows what. It would require a lawyer months more to pour through those 15,000 pages to tell you what they mean.

And, ultimately, you don't really have any choice but to accept them if you want to be a part of modern society. The companies know that of course, so they put every ridiculous thing they can think of in there. Clauses saying that if a dispute comes up, you waive the right to sue them and that instead you need to submit to arbitration from a particular arbitration service, but it turns out that the arbitration service they named is owned by their parent company and has never resolved any dispute against itself. Just by sending somebody a file using gmail, you are technically agreeing that google OWNS that file. So, if your girlfriend emails you a naked picture, theoretically, google would have full rights to sell it to playboy the next day. Just by doing a search on google, you are agreeing that they can collect any information about you they want, track it however they want, and give it to whoever they want, and that the people they give it to are not bound by any restrictions. It's nuts.

Luckily, courts are slowly catching on more and more and are starting to ignore terms and conditions like that entirely.

So, I put "without coercion", but I would make it stronger. I would say only if the user voluntarily opted in to the arrangement in a situation where they were clearly able to continue to use the product without opting in.