I live out here in Arknasas. One of the biggest consumer information collection companies, Acxiom is located over in Conway. I was bored and poking through the privacy policy on their web site and found out a couple of interesting things.
First, you can request a copy of the report that they have on you. Unfortunately, it costs you $5.00, but I'm interested to see what they already know about me... You can request a consumer report form by emailing consumerreport@acxiom.com. But if you'd rather not give your $5.00 to the evil empire, you can at least request that they refrain from selling your information by emailing optout@acxiom.com. I would have just opted out, but my curiousity got the better of me, so I sent off my five bucks.
I also don't know what I think about this from their web site:
"These databases are provided to qualified businesses primarily in the finance, insurance, mortgage, real estate and retail industries for the purpose of verifying information on customers, issuing mortgages, speeding up transactions, assisting law enforcement, reducing chance of fraud, and collecting delinquent accounts."
Guess the government doesn't need to collect the data itself, as long as the corporations make everything available. Guess Big Brother is watching...
Slashdot Mirror
That's not a bad idea, though... I think I'll see it drunk.
My obligatory title suggestion: Star Wars: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Clones* (But Were Afraid To Ask)
I live out here in Arknasas. One of the biggest consumer information collection companies, Acxiom is located over in Conway. I was bored and poking through the privacy policy on their web site and found out a couple of interesting things.
First, you can request a copy of the report that they have on you. Unfortunately, it costs you $5.00, but I'm interested to see what they already know about me... You can request a consumer report form by emailing consumerreport@acxiom.com. But if you'd rather not give your $5.00 to the evil empire, you can at least request that they refrain from selling your information by emailing optout@acxiom.com. I would have just opted out, but my curiousity got the better of me, so I sent off my five bucks.
I also don't know what I think about this from their web site:
"These databases are provided to qualified businesses primarily in the finance, insurance, mortgage, real estate and retail industries for the purpose of verifying information on customers, issuing mortgages, speeding up transactions, assisting law enforcement, reducing chance of fraud, and collecting delinquent accounts."
Guess the government doesn't need to collect the data itself, as long as the corporations make everything available. Guess Big Brother is watching...