The Federal Trade Commission, (FTC) has announced an investigation into nine data brokers,  known as,  Axciom, Corelogic, Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, Peekyou, Rapleaf and Recorded Future, that collect your personal information from public and private sources and sell it to ad agencies, telemarketers, etc…

These nine brokers will be required to provide information about how they collect consumer data, what they do with it once they have it and whether it’s possible for consumers to correct false data or opt-out of having their information sold by brokers.

The investigation follows a prior FTC report which found that most consumers are completely unaware of data brokers’ existence, much less what they do or how to interact with them. That study recommended data brokers should become more transparent about who they are and what they do.

“The earlier study noted that while data brokers collect, maintain, and sell a wealth of information about consumers, they often do not interact directly with consumers,” reads a FTC press release about the investigation. “Rather, they get information from public records and purchase information from other companies. As a result, consumers are often unaware of the existence of data brokers as well as the purposes for which they collect and use consumers’ data.”

If you have told a telemarketer to stop calling you and they continue to harass you, they may be in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, (TCPA) and you may be entitled to compensation.  Please give my office, The Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman a call today at (877) 449-8898 to discuss your case.