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Whose data is it anyway?

Intellectual property in a digital age has been traditionally focused on issues like copyright infringement and patents.

One issue that has not been covered is the implications for personal data.Where previously companies would pay ‘mystery shoppers’ or members of the public in some way for the information about how people’s retail habits, they are now able to access data generated by customers using their cards and process it into marketing data.

Mastercard is the latest company to hit the headlines for its plans to mine customers data for insights that can be sold on.

The curious part is the company’s claim that they can use off-line data to help advertisers target you online. Arguing their system is proprietary, they don’t offer any detail on how this is possible without using some degree of personal information.

If this data has value, then it should be up to Mastercard to ask customers for permission to use their information and offer consumers something in return. Whether health records, shopping habits or geolocation data, the consumer should be in control and it is a retrograde step for privacy when companies decide that it is they, not the people who are actually generating the data, should decide what happens to it.

Instead they are treating details of our personal behaviour like their own property to be bundled up and sold on without any regard to what customers might want.

Have Mastercard made any effort to seek customer’s consent for processing their shopping habits and selling it on? How do consumers opt out? It’s exactly this kind of behaviour that leads consumers to question whether companies are more interested in their own profit than respecting people’s privacy.
Posted on October 18, 2012 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Databases, Online privacy, Privacy, Technology, United States
  • http://twitter.com/lambtonwyrm Jeff Piper

    To use the data for that purpose should it not be registered with the ICO and in the Ts & Cs as to that data being used like that.?

  • NoNoNo

    Here we go again – why should we have to keep telling companies and others that we DON’T consent to them doing what they like with our personal and/or sensitive data? The default should be that we do not consent and if they want to use our data then they need to seek our permission – in my case the answer is always the same NO. Because of the way companies use our data these days I use cash as much as possible and do not have any loyalty cards – such schemes are simply very cheap ways for huge organisations to get hold of your data and habits for their own gains.

  • james oliver

    nothing new here
    how many times do we phone an agency and before they speak to you they want personal details for your protection? as usual the shoe is on the authorities/powerful ones to determine polcy and practice with no reference to the users/customers at all. this country is a totalitarian fascist state – thanks to everyone for making it so