how to know what your zip code is
Every fourth dimension you mindlessly give a sales clerk your zip code at checkout, yous're giving data companies and retailers the ability to track everything from your body type to your bad habits.
That v-digit zip code is one of the fundamental items data brokers use to link a wealth of public records to what you buy. They can figure out whether you lot're getting married (or divorced), selling your home, smoke cigarettes, sending a kid off to college or nigh to have ane.
Such information is the cornerstone of a multi-billion dollar industry that enables retailers to target consumers with advertizing and coupons. Yet, information privacy experts are concerned about the level at which consumers are beingness tracked without their knowledge -- and what would happen if that data got into the wrong hands.
Acxiom, one of the biggest data brokers in the business, claims to take a database that holds information -- including one's historic period, marital status, education level, political leanings, hobbies and income level -- on 190 1000000 individuals. Major competitors, similar Datalogix and CoreLogic, tout similarly vast databases.
In most cases, all that is needed to match the information these information brokers compile with what you lot buy is your total name — obtained when you swipe a credit menu — and a null lawmaking, according to information privacy experts. This allows them to effigy out that yous are the Sally Smith who lives in Butte, Mont., not the 1 who lives in Denver, for instance.
"For the bulk of the state, the zilch lawmaking is going to be the piece of the puzzle that is going to enable a merchant to identify you," said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Related: Your phone company is selling your personal data
In one case a retailer identifies yous, it can rails and analyze your spending behaviors and groundwork in gild to predict what you might purchase next. In the data world, this is often chosen predictive analysis or predictive modeling.
Buying a bunch of maternity clothes? Y'all must be expecting. Stocking upward on diapers and baby food? The baby must have been built-in, which means you're a new parent now. Ownership clothes in larger sizes? You could terminate up classified every bit an overweight or obese consumer. And and then on.
Some retailers sell this information back to the data brokers which then sell information technology to other companies -- including retailers, banks, credit bill of fare issuers, airlines, hotels, auto manufacturers and fifty-fifty Facebook -- in a seemingly never-ending wheel.
"Some of these data brokers know us amend than we know ourselves," said Pam Dixon, executive manager of the World Privacy Forum.
Related: What blazon of consumer are you?
Of class, you typically don't have to give your zip lawmaking to a cashier. Last month, the Massachusetts Supreme Courtroom ruled that aught codes are "personal" information nether state consumer privacy laws, later on Melissa Tyler sued craft shop Michaels for using her zip lawmaking to detect her and send store mailings. She had thought the zip code was required to complete her credit carte du jour transaction, according to the arrange.
Now retailers in the land can't ask for your zip code for marketing purposes -- joining California, which had a similar court case.
Yous often have the right to "opt out" of letting information brokers and other companies share certain information they've gathered well-nigh you lot, but few people practise so, said Dixon.
The Federal Trade Commission is requiring the nine major data brokers to explicate how they collect, store and use consumer data. Major data firms have noted that they don't reveal sensitive data, similar Social Security or driver'due south license numbers. Still, the agency is concerned that brokers' databases could exist hacked, creating identity theft risks.
Currently, data brokers are required past federal law to maintain the privacy of a consumer's data just if it is used for credit, employment, insurance or housing.
But in that location are some gray areas. Medical records and prescription purchases are off limits, simply data brokers are immune to track purchases of over-the-counter drugs and other related medical items, also as spider web searches and medical surveys that consumers fill out online, said Dixon.
That has allowed Acxiom to create a "health interest" category, which highlights consumers with "interests related to" health conditions, such as arthritis and diabetes. In a letter to Congress, Acxiom officials noted that they do not collect data near sensitive health conditions, such every bit sexually transmitted diseases.
Related: Banks sell consumer shopping information to retailers
The National Retail Federation, an industry trade grouping, argues that the information drove allows retailers to better target their marketing campaigns, ultimately benefiting consumers.
Because "discounts are sent to a relatively small group, rather than to an entire neighborhood, the merchant saves money and can afford to give its likely customers bigger or more frequent reductions," Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel for the NRF, said in a argument.
Privacy advocates counter that consumers should at least be more aware how they are being tracked.
"There is zero wrong with advertising," Dixon said. "The problem is when nosotros don't know our data is existence used."
Source: https://money.cnn.com/2013/04/18/pf/data-privacy/index.html
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