STOP THE DATA BROKERS AND BUYERS
AI – MODELS
TO UNCOVER THE HIDDEN DATA TRADE:
GLOBAL EFFORT TO EXPOSE DATA BROKERS AND THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO BUY AND PROFITTIER FROM OUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We Are Not Products – We Are Human Beings
Across the European Union, the legal principles protecting personal data are already well established. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the ePrivacy Directive, together with national data protection, consumer protection and human rights laws, require that personal information whether provided directly by a customer or collected through other lawful means must be collected, processed, stored, shared and used only within a clear legal, ethical and human rights framework.
Where organisations or individuals secretly collect, exploit, commercially sell or knowingly purchase personal information without a lawful basis, these existing laws already provide the powers to investigate, enforce and impose significant penalties where breaches can be established.
Artificial Intelligence will now become a powerful investigative tool to help identify and expose evidence of potential breaches by tracing data flows, analysing commercial relationships and revealing the networks of thoes involved in collecting, selling, buying and profiting from our personal information.
If stealing someone’s property is a crime, unlawfully taking and exploiting someone’s identity must be treated with the same seriousness.
We have been told that constant tracking is “innovation”. We have been told that harvesting information from our phones, our cars, our televisions, our homes and our daily activities is simply the modern way of doing business. This has gone far beyond acceptable business practice.
The public never agreed to become a product
Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks:
“I would like hundreds of unknown companies to build a profile about me today.”
Nobody wants their personal information passed between organisations they have never heard of. Nobody wants their vehicle, television, phone or connected devices quietly becoming sources of commercial intelligence about their lives.
Yet this is the reality people are faced with.
The argument that people “consented” because they clicked a button hidden in some cookie or inside pages of complicated legal wording is increasingly being challenged and rejected.
WITHOUT BUYERS THERE, IS NO MARKET
The public debate has focused on data brokers, but they are only one part of the marketplace. Every data broker depends on people willing to buy, and profit from our personal information.
The surveillance economy is expanding at an alarming rate
The concerns are no longer limited to the internet. The modern world is becoming filled with connected devices capable of collecting information about human activity.
Phones have been turned into the ultimate surveilance tool
What began as a simple communication device has evolved into one of the most powerful personal data collection tools ever created, capable of recording and analysing extraordinary amounts of information about our daily lives.
The question is no longer whether this has gone too far—it is how we allowed it to go this far.
Smart vehicles can collect extensive information about drivers, journeys and vehicle usage. However, the installation of cameras or surveillance systems that monitor individuals, is completely unacceptable.
Smart televisions can monitor and some now have cameras to video you and your family in your own home.
Apps can track locations and usage patterns.
CCTV cameras with facial recognition without any consent are spreading through public and private spaces. Video from these can be sent across the world in real time.
People have the fundamental right to privacy in their own homes and in public and private spaces.
No one should have their conversations recorded, monitored or exploited without, lawful authority.
AI AND THE AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY IS COMING
Privacy violations in the future will no longer be treated as minor regulatory issues or simply another cost of doing business.
As technology advances, so will the ability to detect, trace and expose organisations involved in the misuse, exploitation or unauthorised trading of personal information.
Artificial intelligence systems will increasingly be used to identify suspicious data practices, uncover hidden networks, analyse data flows and bring greater transparency to an industry that has operated for too long with limited public visibility.
To strengthen and apply existing laws, while establishing new legal frameworks that ensure individuals and organisations are held accountable for the misuse, exploitation or unlawful commercial use of personal information.
A GLOBAL MOVEMENT IS THE NEXT STEP – INTERNATIONAL ACTION
Enough is Enough
The public is angry because people feel they have lost control over something deeply personal: their own identity. They are tired of being told that they must accept surveillance as the price of modern life.
The message to governments, corporations and data brokers must now be clear: The harvesting of our personal lives must end.
The age of treating people as data mines must end. The future of technology must belong to humanity not to those who profit from taking what people never knowingly gave away.
COOKIES: THE DIGITAL TRACKING TOOL THAT HELPED BUILD THE DATA BROKER INDUSTRY
For many people, the word “cookie” sounds harmless.
But behind this simple term is one of the technologies that helped create today’s vast personal data economy.
While some cookies are necessary for some websites to operate properly, the widespread use of tracking cookies and similar technologies has allowed companies to monitor online behaviour, build detailed profiles and share information across complex advertising networks.
Commercial Surveillance.
Every search.
Every click.
Every website visited.
Every interest expressed online.
In many cases, people are unaware of how much information is being collected, who has access to it, or where it ultimately ends up.
Behind this vast digital marketplace sits a network of data brokers and other organisations that can gather, combine and sell personal information, often turning ordinary people’s online lives into commercial assets.
THE NAME AND ACCOUNTABILITY CAMPAIGN: WHO IS PROFITING FROM OUR DATA?
It is time for transparency and accountability. The public has the right to know which organisations are collecting, sharing, selling and profiting from personal information — especially companies that have moved beyond their original purpose and entered the data business.
For instance: a car company’s core purpose should be building safe and reliable vehicles, not turning drivers into sources of personal data revenue.
The same concern applies across many industries where companies have expanded from providing products and services into collecting, analysing and commercialising customer information.
People buy cars to travel, phones to communicate and services to improve their lives not to unknowingly become sources of data profit.
Without a person knowledge: Personal information can be bought, sold, acquired through company takeovers, or transferred between organisations, often leaving customers unaware of who now holds their data or how it is being used.
Artificial intelligence can identify, monitor, and document the activities of data brokers by analyzing data practices, tracking changes over time, and organizing evidence.
Support privacy investigations, compliance reviews, and legal action by efficiently identifying potential violations and presenting relevant information for assessment.
Watch Out For The Campaign Starting Soon
I have acquired an initial database containing details of more than 1,000 data brokers, which will be need to be systematically verified, analysed and reviewed as part of this investigation and campaign.
Read about “Chat Control Law”
