FTC Commissioner Proposes ‘Reclaim Your Name’ Initiative for Data Collection Transparency

The government has been in the hot seat for this moth due to the surveillance program issues that the people coined us a violation on their right to privacy. An FTC member thought of a way to resolve this.

The data brokerages industry is now being zoomed in as businesses go to them to gather consumer details such as the shopping behaviors, vacation preferences, income details, vices, health issues, and more. These data were used by businesses to identify potential customers and keep their current customers.

Consumers were often given option to opt out for their data being stored in the marketing databases but those who gave permission don’t have the visibility on the information held about them. They were not aware whether the information is accurate due to lack of transparency. This transparency issue is something where the government has no control and they can only warn people of the potential risks of giving permissions to these businesses to store their information especially those sensitive data such as financial and health information.

Julie Brill, commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, thought of an initiative to address this lack of transparency issue. Her proposal was to for the data brokerage companies to allow consumers to view their personal records through an online portal which she named ‘Reclaim Your Name’. Data brokers will be required to describe their data collection practices and let the consumers know of their access rules.

“Reclaim Your Name would empower the consumer to find out how brokers are collecting and using data; give her access to information that data brokers have amassed about her; allow her to opt-out if she learns a data broker is selling her information for marketing purposes and provide her the opportunity to correct errors in information used for substantive decisions – like credit, insurance, employment, and other benefits,” Ms. Brill said in a speech on Wednesday morning at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in Washington.