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Take the time/Do the work > Perhaps none of this is surprising—data breach after data privacy scandal have spotlighted just how intimately private companies track Americans’ daily lives. However much these companies wish to normalize their surveillance, down to the exact sidewalk you stand on or restaurant you sit in, we can’t forget that data brokers selling this location data threaten civil rights, national security, and democracy.

On top of all this, foreign intelligence or security organizations could buy up data broker data, with virtually no restrictions, to conduct intelligence operations or identify the real-time locations of diplomats, government, or military personnel. (Think of how FitBit data exposed the real-time locations of service members on military bases—except where a foreign organization can buy the data, legally, directly from an American data broker.) All of this harms national security, as companies aggregate and sell highly sensitive data on US individuals with no public visibility into what kind of vetting, if any, is done of potential buyers.

The only way to mitigate these companies’ threat to democracy—through their extraordinary and unchecked surveillance power—is regulation. Congress must integrate the data brokerage ecosystem into a strong federal privacy law, restricting the constant buying and selling of Americans’ sensitive data

These firms could track whether you've visited your therapist's office or your ex's house. And without regulation, they're a threat to democracy

Data Brokers Know Where You Are—and Want to Sell That Intel

Read more > https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-data-brokers-know-where-you-are-and-want-to-sell-that-intel/