November/December 2013 Issue

Meet the Data Brokers Who Help Corporations Sell Your Digital Life

They know what you did last summer.

<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&searchterm=digital+spying&search_group=#id=146275202&src=4M6h14mQNJI_GrPizZGoMg-1-0">alphaspirit</a>/Shutterstock

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Serving (up) the single ladies

Datalogix tracks the spending habits of more than 110 million households using sources such as store loyalty cards. It partners with Twitter and Facebook to assess whether groups of users buy the cooking gear or brand of shampoo advertised on their social-media pages. Datalogix doesn’t know that a certain Mother Jones journalist bought a quart of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy after changing her Facebook status back to “single,” but it can help determine whether a targeted group of twentysomething professional women who left relationships bought that ice cream.

Opt out? You can do so on the company’s website, but the request takes 30 days to process and each household member must opt out separately.

Companies that sell similar info: Acxiom, Epsilon, BlueKai, V12 Group
 

Dude, where’s my car?

TLO, a “background research” company, uses technology that scans and reads license plates collected by cameras mounted on parking garages, roads, and bridges from coast to coast. The company claims to have collated more than 1 billion time-stamped reports containing photographs and specific locations of vehicles, which TLO markets to law enforcement agencies, law firms, and data brokers.

Opt out? Not unless you can limit your driving to dirt roads.

Companies that sell similar info: MVTRAC, Vigilant Solutions
 

Cheap credit scores and…Baby Einstein videos?

With credit reports on at least 299 million consumers, Experian doesn’t just hold the key to whether you’ll get a car loan or home mortgage: It also sells “life-event” data to advertisers, marketing a database that is “updated weekly with the names of expectant parents and families with newborns,” and new homeowners, among other information.

Opt out? Experian allows users to opt out online or by phone but notes that “will not eliminate all targeted advertising.”

Companies that sell similar info: Equifax, TransUnion
 

Location is everything

As you surf the web, Neustar uses your computer’s IP address to determine your area code, postal code, time zone, whether you’re at home or at work, and whether you’re using your phone. They then sell this data to companies that point ads at you: “Want to meet singles in Washington, DC?”

Opt out? You can do so on Neu­star’s site, although you’ll have to do it again each time you switch browsers or get a new computer.

Companies that sell similar info: MaxMind, Digital Envoy
 

Background checks on steroids

You’ve seen Intelius’ ads if you’ve ever Googled your eighth-grade crush. The company sells data using more than 20 billion records on individuals, including bankruptcies, arrests, and address histories, mostly culled from public records such as driver’s license databases and court documents. Intelius also collects relevant content from “blogs or social networking sites.”

Opt out? You’ll need to send a state-issued ID card or driver’s license via fax or US mail, and wait 7 to 14 days.

Companies that sell similar info: Spokeo, PeopleFinders, BeenVerified.com

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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