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In December of last year, with the Biden administration still in control, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced plans to introduce new rules to limit data brokers’ ability to sell sensitive information about Americans online. Such information can include home addresses, family relations, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers.

Now, under the Trump administration, the CFPB has announced it will be canceling the rollout of those new rules, instead allowing U.S. data brokers to continue operating under the current relaxed regulations.

This move is particularly notable at a time when personal data is regularly being exposed on a massive scale through major breaches and improper sales of data. For example, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Coinbase, was recently found to have waited months to inform consumers it had sold their data to criminals, while changing its terms of service to limit resulting class-action lawsuits.

Compounding the issue, people-search sites such as Spokeo and FastPeopleSearch collect as much personal data as possible and share it publicly to anyone with internet access.

The proliferation of personal information online is having society-wide effects, impacting everyone from CEOs and public officials to private citizens. Data-protection services like Incogni are available to help people identify and remove their personal information that has been shared online.

To determine the depth of exposure to individuals, Incogni recently examined the online privacy of 325 board members from Dow 30 companies. These individuals are assumed to have a high degree of online security due to their positions in major industries, so their rate of personal data exposure provides a useful illustration of the scale of exposure across society.

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Incogni discovered the following:

  • Nearly three-quarters of the Dow 30 board members investigated are likely to be found on at least one people-search site.
  • Of the board members likely to have data exposed on such sites, 78 percent are likely to be found on three or more people search sites.
  • Male board members have their data exposed more frequently than their female counterparts.
  • Despite robust data protection laws in California, board members in the state were just as likely to have their data exposed as elsewhere, suggesting Americans are similarly at risk, no matter their location.
  • There appears to be a correlation between people’s exposure to data breaches and their personal data being shared online through people-search sites.

The full report from Incogni can be read here.

To gain a better understanding of where your personal data has been shared publicly and to begin removing it, click here to learn about Incogni. They provide a service that can help protect you from identity theft, spam calls, and online threats impacting your physical safety. You can also get 55% off annual Incogni plans by using LEVER at the checkout.

Concerns about data privacy risks are widespread. Caroline Kraczon, a law fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an organization seeking to protect privacy in the information age, stated, “Data brokers inflict severe harm on individuals by degrading privacy, threatening national security, enabling scams and fraud, endangering public officials and survivors of domestic violence, and putting immigrant populations at risk.”