Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Related: Watch the full HBO Special Report: Fixing the System
In September, the data broker Experian was hacked, exposing the identifying information of some 15 million people, most of whom had sought credit checks through the company as part of the process of getting T-Mobile cell service. Although the company claimed that the hack "did not impact Experian's consumer credit database," it nevertheless proved that data brokers are not infallible.If the information data brokers have collected were to leak, experts say the consequences could be dire. "Imagine data in the wrong hands being used to out a person living in a conservative town as homosexual or transgender," said Lum, "or a person's daily routine being discovered by an abusive ex."If Sanders is serious about stopping the spread of Big Data, though, he might want to start in his own backyard. A September audit of campaign websites conducted by the Online Trust Alliance, a consumer watchdog group, gave Sanders' 2016 site a failing grade.Over the phone, OTA's Craig Spiezle explained that the audit rated 23 presidential campaign sites on a variety of criteria, including privacy protection, site security, the privacy policy listed on campaign websites, and authentication measures. "The total (your campaign) could get was a 100," he said. "The average was 57.7, the highest was 90, and the lowest was 37. The Sanders campaign was towards the very bottom of that scale."
Advertisement
Advertisement
Indeed, selling data can be quite lucrative for presidential campaigns. A report published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette earlier this year found that the campaigns of several 2012 candidates—including Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich—as well as a now-defunct committee for Hillary Clinton raked in money—and helped retire their debts—by selling data collected from supporters."Candidates have taken the liberty of sharing data as they see fit," said Spiezle. "I think it's hypocritical that candidates say the government and industry shouldn't be doing something when their own campaigns are marching to a different tune."The long and short of all of this is that no one seems to know where the line should be when it comes to our online privacy—least of all the government. In last week's debate, Sanders suggested that federal law has not yet caught up with the rapid acceleration of privacy-breaching technology, and there is some truth to that.In its 2014 report, the FTC urged Congress to "enact legislation that would enable consumers to learn of the existence of the activities of data brokers and provide consumers with reasonable access to information about them held by these entities," as well as offering consumers "the ability to opt out of having [that data] shared for marketing purposes." So far, though, there hasn't been much movement on that front.A bill introduced last year by West Virginia Senator John D. Rockefeller would have required data brokers to provide consumers with access to whatever personal information they had collected, and allow them to opt out of being included on the firms' lists. Loftily titled the "Data Broker Accountability and Transparency Act," the bill died in committee. A similar bill was introduced earlier this year, but it too died before ever hitting the Senate floor.Follow Drew on Twitter.On Motherboard: A Virtual Reality Debate Is Basically As Fun As a Real Life Debate