Washington, D.C.—The Federal Trade Commission has ordered nine companies that provide data brokerage services to report on how they collect and use customer data for marketing purposes.
The nine companies receiving the FTC's order to file reports by Feb. 1 are Acxiom Corp., CoreLogic Inc., Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius Inc., Peekyou.com, Rapleaf and Recorded Future.
The FTC is seeking details about the nature and sources of the information the data brokers collect; how they use, maintain and disseminate the information; and the extent to which the data brokers allow consumers to access and correct their information or to opt out of having their personal information sold. The FTC said it will use the testimony in making recommendations on how the data industry can improve its privacy practices.
The interest of government in the practices of data brokers is heating up. Last week, a congressional caucus investigating data collection for marketing purposes heard testimony from nine major data brokers. Acxiom and Intelius were among the companies testifying.
