How is my personal information online?

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is posted online by data brokers that crawl the web for personal information of consumers, and then compile it into easy-to-find profiles. Data brokers compile these profiles using information from a variety of sources, listed below:

1. Government and public records

Examples of government and public records include, but are not limited to:

• Real estate transactions (including appraisals)
• Trademark filings
• Marriage licenses and divorce decrees
• Any unsealed lawsuits or legal actions
• Birth and death certificates
• Census statistics
• Voter registrations
• Driver’s licenses
• Utility companies
• Government spending reports
• Political campaign contributions
• Sex offender registrations
• Legislation minutes
• Business and entity filings
• Professional and business licenses
• Criminal records

2. Self-Reported Information

Those mailing lists and sweepstakes are typically used as a form of lead-generation for retargeting an audience with ads. Some examples of self-reported information include:

• Sweepstakes entries
• Mailing list sign-ups
• Rebate and warranty cards
• Contests
• Surveys

If signing up for a mailing list, contest or sweepstakes, always check the Terms and Conditions to be sure that the company isn’t re-using your personal information for other purposes.

3. Social Media

This usually depends on the site’s Terms of Use regarding sharing info with third parties, as well as your own privacy selections on that site (e.g., your Facebook likes and interests, your friends, your tweets, the work information you provide to LinkedIn). 

• Forum posts
• Online account registrations and profiles
  • This might give your name, age, gender, location, schools attended, ethnicity, religious views, and relationship status/preferences

4. Other data brokers

Secondary sites, advertising networks, companies, data brokers, and all sorts of other third parties collect, store, and sell this information through data mining and online tracking. They crawl the web searching for information, and use it to build a profile of you: who they think you are, and what they think you like. Then, they target you with ads based on your profile, and constantly update your information with anything new they find while scraping the web, plus, they sell your information to whoever wants to buy it.