The documentary we watched a couple of days ago focused on the company Acxiom. The company collects data on consumers and then sells it for the purpose of targeted advertising campaigns. They are based in Conway, Arkansas and have the largest consumer database in the world. As of 2012, they had information of 500 million costumers worldwide. This number is almost certainly much larger now. The company also about 1,500 data points per person. Think about that, Acxiom likely has 1,500 data points about you, where you live, what food you like, pets you have, hobbies, and much much more. You may ask, the question, is this even legal? And yes, it is perfectly legal as all the information is public record. The scary thing about this is the fact that very little Americans have even heard of Acxiom and an even smaller amount actually know what they are up to. While I certainly have no problem with Acxiom knowing what my favorite color is, they should be more transparent with the public. People should know about the large scale data mining and be aware that their own personal details are sitting on a computer somewhere in a warehouse. But the business is lucrative, Acxiom made $245 million in 2018, which is 9% more than the previous year. According to the companies, chief executive, Scott E. Howe, he thinks of the company as a "data refiner", instead of a data miner. Whatever you want to call it, it certainly borders on the edge of being ethical. If you go to Acxiom's website, everywhere they have quotes like, "Compliance and data ethics are in our DNA." But they never actually explain how they are collecting their data ethically. Instead they have cheesy corporate videos, (weirdly uploaded to Vimeo instead of Youtube) that show nice people in suits talking about how great their company is. Ultimately, Acxiom is a company that makes hundreds of millions of dollars while utilizing sketchy tactics to obtain their data.
I'm really interested in this topic because I think it's only going to become more important. As more and more of our interactions are online, it's undoubtable that our data will become even more valuable (and accessible). What I think is most important is a point you made, it's fine that companies have this data, but not enough people know that it's being taken.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post, as I found the topic very interesting. Privacy will always be a major debate in America. While I did not know about Acxiom specifically before watching the documentary, I knew that data is a lucrative market. “Big data” has become a buzzword in the technology industry. Companies like Facebook and Google track users in ways that most people do not even realize. They not only record your activity while you are using their websites, but since they handle ad delivery for most websites, they can track you almost anywhere on the internet. Their mobile apps can also track your physical location, telling them what places you visit and who you are with.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.wired.com/story/google-tracks-you-privacy/