home. the delegation was given a tour inside the place where hemingway wrote many of his famous works. that will do it for this edition of al jazeera in new york. thank you for watching. >> hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you're in "the stream." from your credit card swipes to facebook updates, data brokers are tracking you, and they know a lot more about you than you might think. my cohost, rajahad ali, is here, and he's bringing in the feedback in the conferences. raj, we're diving through the data today. and we discovered an app that

gives you a visual of who is tracking you when you're on your favorite website. >> he said: all right, here's my facebook page, i'm doing this for america. and i just downloaded an app. and check this out. what are all of these interesting sites that have access to my facebook pang. when i visit facebook, all of these phenomenalling sites are informed. d3, gcis, 4e cloud front.net. >> you have no idea who any of these are, and when you're on facebook, your information is being funneled to them. theys touchdowns being funneled to them. and they're informed. >> let's try to find informed. data brokers track habits

offline, and some keep piles of raw information on you, and others take data to make lists and sell. it could be as innocuous as your candy bar preference, or if you're a cancer survivor or the parents of a child killed in a car accident. >> it said, "daughter killed in car crash or current business" and why would they have that information? or why would they need that? what purpose would it serve anybody. and what more information are they using? how do they use it and what for? >> those are questions that a lot of people are asking, including privacy experts, who fear that it crosses more than ethical boundaries. data brokers say that it's a lifestyle. >> i think that consumers understand that we all live data driven lives today.

our economy is data driven and our days are data driven, and information is constantly flowing in all sorts of different directions, and what we're doing here is making sure that it flows in responsible directions for responsible uses. >> companies and organizations spend more than $2 billion every year buying your information from these brokers, so what lists are you on, and what guarantees do you have that people controlling the lists are acting responsibly? here to explain this web of information is larry bounce, big bank destruction, and joining us, pam dixon, the executive director of world privacy forum, and her group helps people protect themselves and a data aggregation firm. thank you for joining us. pam, a lot of americans log onto facebook and twitter every day, it's a cornerstone of what raj

and i do here at the show. but even with when you sign up for a discount card at the grocery store, those are not free, they're being bought by companies left and right, who is buying it and what do they know about us. >> there are so many companies purchasing and selling data, it's impossible to get a handle on it at this point. i'm much less concerned about facebook and twitter and some of the online sites because there are things that you can do to stop that collection, or at least really mitigate it. but in terms of loyalty cards, they're a big problem, and in terms of data flow, if you're purchasing a lot of things through various loyalty card programs, i think you would be really surprised to see what the back end of that looks like. a lot of data flows, and what we're talking about here, we're talking about information that is deeply personally identifiable. it's your name, your home

address, how many kids you have, what your income is, if you rent or own a home, what's your zip code average income? and we're talking about very detailed information that most people would never dream is up there about them. >> larry, kind of explain the records versus data, because some might conflict the two. and they're entirely separate. >> you can keep files of course, and that's where you have records, and the individual items in the record is the data. you can have all sorts of data, and it's very valuable. one of the things to note is, as we look at the internet, one of the things that's driven in zes over the last 20 years, most of it is free to use. most of the content is free. and why is it free? because we do allow this tracking and collecting of information so the trackers can use it and the sites can use it and the stores can use it, and work.

>> is that why we allow it? so stores and businesses can use it? >> actually, i'm much less concerned about some of the ad network issues in relationship to data brokers, and i'm much much more concerned in things like cassius. i brought a list with me. it's a list of people with cancer by state. so if my health information is being sold and my name and my home address is being attached to it, i'm worried about that, because an employer can purchase that, and we're talking about a job i could lose because i could be expensive for their health plan. and you can have others, and auto insurers and health plans, so i'm much more focused on the kinds of things that are personally identifiable and the things that will really bring a lot of harm, and there's a lot of harm that can come from winding up on the wrong list. like a cancer victim by state.

>> you know, raj, pam mentioned the back end data, and i mentioned that some of it, available for like 8 cents per name, were the names of domestic violence victims. >> and it's surprising, she has a list, a public list of people and their medical history. francie just tweeted: we're learning about information that's available. and if i'm downloading an app, angry bird, i give away

information, and flash, how do people get this deposited information from customers? >> you're talking about two kinds of data. one thing that we, as a company, focus on, for the last ten years, we're talking to a consumers about what is publicly available, what's in the public record, and what's commercially available about that information. so we have gathered that data and applied technology to map individuals of who that belongs to. and i think we talked about the downside, and let me talk about how consumers use like a service? people are constantly looking for others online. in fact, we recently did a survey, and it showed that 81% of the people have actually used internet search for someone. it could be an old colleague, or a long lost cousin or somebody. now, of those people, only 20%

at a time, people found that they can actually use google or bing for search engines for their satisfaction. so most of the time search engines don't give accurate results. if you're looking for a rose blue, you put in the key words, like pat down, looking for a person. so that's where intelligence comes into play where we provide that search engine and consumers can find the information. now, why do they need to find the information? sometimes they're in a situation they go for a date, they want to make sure that the person they go for a blind date is actually giving them the facts, trustworthy. by going to the public record, they have a criminal background. and do they have a --

>> i get it for individual use and what you're saying, i do see the value in that, but does intelia sell this to businesses as well. >> we do not. our business is all about empowering the consumer. we are empowering the consumer so they can make better decisions in their day-to-day life. it could be from a safety standard, or just knowing about the information out there. because the average consumer doesn't understand that. and that's what we focus on. we are actually here, and in fact, our tag line is live in the know, that's the tag line to the consumer. >> pam, you want to get in on this? >> there's a really interesting -- it's precaution speaking out, in a free society, there's an incredible rub between the right to free speech and the freedom of information and the right to privacy. and the tension occurs

dramatically in public record information. there arer important uses for public records. for example, the reason we really want public arrest records is so there are not secret arrests. but what happens is that sometimes, public record information can be inaccurate. and it can be very challenging for the people who have inaccurate records to get it corrected, and to opt out of all of the places where it is. so on our website, we have this very simple data broker opt out sheet. and unfortunately what you'll see, intelia is doing the right thing, they're allowing people to opt out of their service, which is really good, but not everyone does. there are so many people finders and data brokers that don't allow an opt out. so this people by cancer by state, that's an unseen data broker.

and intelious, if you do a search, intelious will usually come up and that's part of their data model. but these that are secret and unapproachable and unon the outable, those are really trouble. if we were never online or never a member of a loyalty program, what kind of life is, is that? do we have to be in a strange opt out village to have our privacy? i hope not. >> we want to dive into that after the break, your personal information, and habits and preferences, those are worth a lot of money, and who is profiting? we're joined by one man who says that his data was sold by a company he trusted.

so many money stories sound complicated. but don't worry.

i'm here to take the fear out of finance. every night on my show i break down the confusing financial speak and make it real. >> talking about the business of selling your information. the industry is raking it in, $2 billion a year selling information, and why do you think that buying and selling data is such big business? >> it all comes from consumers getting downtowns, and i think people often don't realize that there's no free lunch. they're giving away a piece of information in exchange for some discount or some loyalty program or something, and i think we're entering an age of digital information, and consumers play

a huge role. disinformation is sold to consumer risk management or advertising companies, an array of companies that are constantly looking at how i actually maximize selling my products to targeted customers? and they range from retailers to pharmaceutical companies to a whole range of companies. and i think this is where we feel that consumers need to understand more about what is the information that they are disclosing? are they giving information for certain goods, and i think the more than that's create, the more consumers can be careful about it. >> but some pam, some of this information, you don't know you're giving up >> it would be great if that were true, and pieces of are true, but here's the problem. if we go and we use our debt or credit cards to buy groceries, not

with a loyalty card program, but just purchase them. if we walk into a store, a big box retail outlet or mid-sized store, especially large retailers at this point are doing some kind of data brokers, and they're adding in information, so let's say that you go to a store, you buy something with a credit card and you're not living in california where this is illegal and they ask for your zip code. really, if you lie about your zip code, they can go and find your real zip code and home address, and there's very little control that consumers have, and in this situation, consumers aren't trying to get something for free. they're just trying to live their lives. all of us are trying to live our lives and use the digital tools available to us. and this is the real complaint. we don't realize that all of our transactions and who we are and what we're doing on a daily basis is getting tracked and

bought and sliced and diced to put us into categories, and this is objectionable. >> go ahead. >> actually, i have a slightly different opinion because i've actually dealt with a lot of retailers and credit card companies from my previous background. there are two transactions. one is the credit card trans, and the debt card transaction and the other is what you actually purchase. they are done separately. and they use the purchase data to just share with the manufacturer, so that practice goes way back into the 80s and 90s, even before the internet, and i think credit card appending is actually information for the retailers they collect it on data.

>> our community is really talking about how this has implications for customers. the information online, . shahthat's a great question, larry, when does this cross the line, when we see price discrimination. talk about it. >> it's important to remember why this is being collected. there are add actors, and there are a lot of them, but the main thing they want to know, they want to know what to make and who to ship it to, and it can be

put to illegal uses. and those are illegal, and we can do a better job of enforcing those, but we have to remember that most of those are for consumers. >> the uses are problematic, and i'll tell you one of the uses that bothers me a lot. when people go to websites, and let's say this they have been diagnosed with an illness, or a loved one has, they go to a website, especially a medical website and look for information, some will fill out surveys, this is called consumer reported health information, and most don't realize that this information is not protected by hip a there's no federal law around privacy that protects health information that the consumer themself gives up online. so we have these mailing lists

of all of this health information, and there are all of these lists of all types of illnesses. and when this information escapes the bounds, it worries me a lot. it's the kind of information that the employer could use. >> speaking of the lack thereof, a technology writer has written about rebuilding his life after data was sold by one of the major reporting agencies by an illegitimate buyer, and are there restrictions that should be placed on these companies on the buying and selling in? >> yes, lisa, thank you for having me. hardly a month goes by when there's not one of these massive breaches involving tens of millions of individuals, where their data has been sold. i believe i was a victim of one

of those, and it happens to 5% of all americans every year. and i think something needs to change and i don't think we can go on like this. >> larry, what kind of regulation is this right now? >> there were a lot of things. there's the fair credit reporting act, many people think that they should be enhanced but the federal trade commission has gone after many people who have misused the technology, google and yahoo, and they have all been victims of the fcc rules. but what is not regulated is the private exchange of this information, when it's not being purposes. >> actually, the credit reporting act only applies to certain information held by certain kinds of companies, used in credit granting purposes and other eligibility. so most of the

data that we're supplying is not regulated to other data. lack of regulations, all of us had any rights? getting in on the other side. >> these protestors have decided that today they will be arrested >> these people have chased a president from power, they've torn down a state... >> what's clear is that people don't just need protection, they need assistance.

>> the ukraine crisis as tensions esalate >> russia for all inents and purposes showing no signs of backing down. >> crimea's vote rejected by the west... >> here in crimea, a lot of them say the west should just butt out... >> new santions looming >> mr. ambassador will those sanctions work? >> things could easily get out of control >> will crimea break away? what's russia's next move? and how will th u.s. respond? >> we're making it clear that there are consequences for their actions... >> for continuing coverage

stay with al jazeera america your global news leader. there's more to finical news than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month? have you thought about how climate change can effect your grocery bill? could rare minerals in china effect your cell phone bill? or, how a hospital in texas could drive up your health care premium. i'll make the connections from the news to your money real. >> welcome back, we're talking about companies that buy and sell all kinds of information but. mostly without your knowledge. what rights do you have?

raj, our viewers have some thoughts on that. >> our community are always helpful. phil, i want to go back to you, you're a victim of data breach, and is it time for pen and paper? do we have to go back to the 20th century? is there any alternative as opposed to going off the grid to protect ourselves? >> there are a lot of things you can do, but in my case, there was nothing that i did wrong, and nothing i could have done differently to keep my identity from being stolen.

but it really goes back to the data breaches at the big data centers. just storehouses of millions of people's information. if an identity thief hacks into that, they get information on everybody, and that's what happens to me. my social security, my mother's maiden name, my address, my phone number, enough to allow an identity thief to call into one of my credit card companies, pose as me and take over my account. >> is it possible to really opt out of all of these? >> not right now. there's not a national structure that allows a complete national data broker opt out at this point. we're strongly in favor of that, but until then, there's really what i call a top ten opt out. you can go to our site. and you can opt out and it will greatly reduce the volume of some of the public information that's circulating about you,

and the other thing that i recommend for folks, do something called a prescreen opt out and this will keep credit card companies from doing a lot of information sharing that's avoidable. and it will reduce the overall traffic. traffic of your credit information being sent out. >> and pam, i know when you mentioned that top ten key opt out, pam's information is the portland privacy forum so that's where you'll find a link to those. >> the other thing, if you have a sensitive purchase to make, use cash. i know it's archaic, but if it's really sensitive, pay cash, and when you go and you have fog important but medically, don't share it online in a public sphere. it's not a great idea. there are site scrapers out there looking for that info, and it's best to keep it to yourself. >>

>> no, i don't think it's faustian, i think that the consumer are getting quite a bit of value. we could be more transparent about it, and pam is right, there are certain kinds of information that are not sensitive. the truth is it isn't. if we all opted out, the internet would stop working, because there would be no basis to support it. it is a bargain f. we can do a better job of declaring the terms of that bargain, but we have to have that bargain. >> thank you to all of our guests, and until next time, raj and i will see you online at aljazeera.com/ajamstream.

>> >> defying the u.s. in europe. president vladimir putin takes another step to bring crimea into the russian federation. >> hello, i'm sammy, and you're watching live from doha. also ahead - relatives from chinese passengers aboard a missing malaysia airlines plane threaten to go on hunger jet 10 days after the plan vanishes. >> prospects