Sensitive personal information, such as exact home addresses and health conditions, of thousands of U.S. service members could be purchased cheaply from so-called data brokers, according to a study published Monday by Duke University researchers.
Data Brokerage’s Disturbing Ease
Researchers can retrieve data about military personnel based on their geographic location, including whether they lived or worked near Fort Bragg, Quantico or other sensitive military locations. In some cases, data could be purchased for $0.12 per record.
National Security and Privacy at Risk
The investigation highlights long-standing national security concerns among U.S. officials and outside experts that foreign intelligence agencies, for example, could determine the locations and vulnerabilities of U.S. military personnel simply by searching for information on the Internet. The researchers have concluded that scammers can also use the data to stack these people or even blackmail them.
“Getting this data was very easy: a simple domain, 12 cents per service member, no purchase verification required,” said Justin Sherman, a senior fellow at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy who conducts brokering research. “If our research teams can do this in academic research in accordance with university research ethics and privacy procedures, foreign adversaries can immediately obtain the data to profile, blackmail or target military personnel,” Sherman told CNN.
Data Brokers in the Crosshairs
Data brokers can acquire people’s personal information, including social security numbers, names, addresses, incomes, work history, criminal records and other items, and use it to conduct legitimate information searches, such as background checks and credit checks. But it is under increasing scrutiny from regulators. Last August, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it was investigating new rules that would prohibit data brokers from selling certain information except in certain circumstances. The Federal Trade Commission is currently considering new regulations to crack down on data brokers.
“We cannot comment on the specific practices of any company,” an FTC spokesman said. “But we have repeatedly expressed our concerns about the practices of data brokers and the potential impact on the personal information of consumers. We are willing to take measures against companies that do not protect consumers’ data and comply with laws, such as the Law on Fair Credit Report.
Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who introduced legislation to impose restrictions on data brokers, called Duke’s study “a wake-up call to policymakers that the data broker industry is out of control and a serious threat to US national security”.
“Instead of focusing on inefficient plaster, such as Tiktok ban, we need a wide range of solutions to protect Americans for non -right countries,” Wyden said in a statement. “The Department of Defense takes the privacy interests of its employees very seriously,” Defense Department spokesman Timothy Gorman said in a statement to CNN in response to the Duke study. “The volume of commercially available information is increasing, raising concerns about privacy interests, civil liberties interests, national security implications, threats to enemy military personnel, and operational security risks.”
Gorman went on to emphasize that the Department of Defense has a responsibility to protect the privacy interests of individuals and that it is important that our employees maintain, train and implement strong safeguards to protect the privacy interests of our citizens. Do it.
The Defense Department and US intelligence agencies have long been concerned about how foreign spies could exploit the market for Americans’ personal data. The vast amounts of personal data sold online are not only an “increasingly powerful” intelligence-gathering tool for US and foreign intelligence agencies, but also a threat to the privacy of ordinary people, according to a report of US intelligence services published this year.
Pentagon’s Battle to Safeguard Data
In 2018, the Pentagon announced that it would ban its employees from using fitness trackers, smartphones and even dating apps that use geolocation features. This comes after fitness tracking app Strava reviewed its practices after it may have accidentally revealed the locations of security forces around the world.
