The Ethics Of Data Brokers

c0d3h4x0r writes "MSNBC's Bob Sullivan asks, Whatever happened to the ChoicePoint bill? and raises some good points: 'Few experts believe that there was a sudden lack of computer security this year. Rather, there was a sudden bout of truth, thanks to California state law. [...] But in other ways, all the legislation misses the point. The ChoicePoint data leak story was not really about identity theft. It was about this: "Who the hell is ChoicePoint, and why is it making money selling my personal information?"' This makes me wonder what the Slashdot crowd thinks: should anyone be able to sell information about you at all? The general public seems to think not, while our elected officials seem to think it's just fine. How does the information gathered and sold by data brokers differ from the information collected and sold by a private investigator, or is there even a real difference?"

Comments

Sell Me Out

[fishybell]

Sure, why not? Sell all the information you have about me.

How else would I be able to find out what credit cards I pre-approved for?

The Ethics of Data Brokers?

[AthenianGadfly]

The Ethics of Data Brokers

The submitter poses an interesting question, but forgot to include a link where the answer can be found. Here it is.

Re:I *am* original... the facts about me define me

[UncleFluffy]

First, the facts are uncopyrightable.

Ah, but what if I created a non-factual piece of data about myself and it got entered into their system ... I think I have a plan!