THEY HAVE ALL YOUR DATA… (What now?)
First, we have to recognize the reality that there are MANY companies using data collection technologies and sharing their own data with other companies – which in turn, creates MANY massive, meshed datasets living out in the wild in the hands of corporate profiteers, hackers, thieves and hardened criminals. Those datasets contain a profile on you and your family. They have all your data because they either a) collected it from online or offline sources, or b) YOU GAVE IT TO THEM using those pesky social media websites sharing pictures and thoughts with your aunt.
Second, our laws in the United States do not govern this practice of data collection and aggregation well [or even, at all]. It’s a frenzy for entities collect and use as much data as possible from the internet: a living, breathing data monster.
Everything.
They’ve collected more meta data about you than you really understand: your likes, dislikes, financials, driving, hobbies, credit, scores, music, friends, voting habits, associates, wife, family. And your friends data, and their friends data, and their friends’ friends data…well, you may get the point.
We need to err on the side of caution when determining our own data footprint. Let’s just assume these companies, hackers and thieves have more than enough data about us.
Credit Bureaus in bed with our government…
The Credit Bureaus are a core extension of wall street and frankly major sponsors of both the Democratic and Republican parties. According to research done by Forbes ( http://fortune.com/2017/03/08/wall-street-2016-election-spending/ ) donations in 2016 split about 45-55 Democrat-Republican, with the average House Representative receiving more than $300,000 from the Credit Bureaus. Exciting times we live in these days. Further, In 2012, according to Business Insider ( http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-responsible-for-one-third-of-obamas-campaign-funds-2011-7 ) they contributed significantly to Obama’s re-election campaign.
So, if you really think there isn’t money to be made from keeping the US public in the dark and those government wheels greased…think again.
By way of example, we can ask Reuters what happened with the Equifax data breach of over 145 million American’s personal financial information. Oh, right, nothing. Reference: (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-equifax-cfpb/exclusive-u-s-consumer-protection-official-puts-equifax-probe-on-ice-sources-idUSKBN1FP0IZ)
The majority of the American Public’s constituents are egregiously, “letting it slide.” Data breaches and information security are, again, boring to most of the American public or maybe even the constituents don’t understand what’s happening. Maybe we don’t really understand what it means, we think the problem is “hackers” and not poor information security practices.
We can’t continue relying on filing fraud or insurance claims to “Rob Peter to Pay Paul” as an acceptable resolution for getting our data [or money] stolen.
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