Government looks to further regulate big data collection & analytics
by. Brandon Bogler
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is asking Congress to provide new legislation calling for greater transparency and consumer control over information collected by data brokers.
The FTC recently issued a report, Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability, which studied nine data brokers’ collection and sharing of consumer information. The report found the data brokers collect and store billions of data elements covering nearly every U.S. consumer.
The FTC is doing more than writing reports. It is urging Congress to consider legislation that would increase transparency and accountability of data brokers’ activities. In addition, the legislation the FTC is calling for would provide consumers with access to information about them held by data brokerage firms.
The report contends that consumers should have ways to find out about, and most importantly to correct, information compiled on them. The FTC contends consumers should also be allowed to opt out of having their information delivered to data brokerage clients.
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