Where do companies get your private information??

I'm creeped out by the fact that companies seem to know a lot about my personal information -- it's understandable that places that I've done business with before have some data on me, but some info that I've NEVER shared with anyone except hospital staff seems to be leaking, because I get baby products ads, drug ads, etc. mailed to my home address. Is this legit? Can I ask companies to stop selling my contact info, or should I just give fake info from now on?

Don't give your social security number to anyone if you can help it. Also become very familiar with the Privacy Act of 1974. Learn to protect yourself. Know the rules of the game. Those that wish to do you damage will most certainly do it. Trust me.....I know.

Every time you give your information out to anyone, online or not, you run the risk of them selling that information.

Be careful who you give your info out to.

Your other answerers are correct. For a fee, investigators can purchase certain databases with private information. State agencies do it also. For instance, I live in a state with a permanent fund dividend. The state sells their database of peoples names, addresses and phone numbers for a fee. And yes, hospitals and insurance companies also share your information via databases and sell them for a fee. You can thank the new privacy laws for allowing that!

There are 3 sources of information commonly used by marketing companies:

1. Public Records
Phone book listings, birth/death certificates, property tax records, title records, business licenses and more are all considered public records. Certain other records can also be searched, such as marraige licenses, etc.

2. Credit Reports/FACTA/etc.
Credit reports are provided to banks as a way for them to securely exchange information about your payment history and other credit balances. Any credit accounts you have will be listed on your credit report. Marketing companies can purchase information on you from the credit reporting agencies (Transunion, Equifax and Experian). They cannot purchase your actual credit report without permission, but they can purchase a list of names of people who say, just bought a car or house or who meet other broad criteria.

In addition to your credit report, there are also insurance reports and medical records. These are both fairly new but the same techniques can be used by marketing firms.

3. Information Sharing Agreements
Sometimes in the fine print of applications, you will see an information sharing agreement disclosure. This means an organization can share information listed on your application to limited "partners". Sometimes these partners will further leak your information to others.

Grocery store "club cards" are notorious for this, as well as some credit card companies.

Datamining is the technique used to create new inferences from other data, so they may, for instance, see that you have been buying a lot of diapers and baby food so they can make the inference that you have recently had a baby. So they can put new baby next to your name somewhere. Of course, they can infer from that later down the line that you have a kid in kindergarden, if they track you that long. So you see that over time, a large file of facts can be built up on you, and from that more inferences can be created and used to suggest marketing.

Datamining is even used by the government to attempt to find terrorists:
http://www.washingtonspectator.com/articles/20070315surveillance_1.cfm

Contact the companies and request to be removed. Be very cautious what info you give, and be aware that almost everything you do is recorded today. Not that it's always a bad thing, sometimes it's good for you.

spyware

torrents

limewire

you name it

Hospitals are not supposed to give your information to anyone, except maybe your doctor. But somehow personal info and criminal records get on the net and if somebody is willing to pay they can see your info.

the telephone company sells your address, name, & phone number to companies. the haynes directory buys them for telemarketing reasons, address and all. don't list your name, etc in the phone book, pay the extra to have it unlisted. if you buy magazines, they sell your name too, so do the companies with the little questionaire post card about your interests, you will find them with product warrenties for items you bought.

It is all available online......just like you can run a free credit report....they will invest the 30 bucks to do that and a criminal check.....it does tell all.....

they buy it from agencies or get it through on line/offline/paper form based survey

take-care
1. while filling on line or offline or paper forms first see the privacy policy of the form provider. never indicate YES or tick on yes boxes for promotional activities.
2. do the same for the on line subsciption of any kind

good luck
www.alappattu.com

They buy it from companies who buy it from companies who buy it from companies who, I think you get the picture.

mantra.com
networksolutions.com (They use WHOIS)
yellowpages.com

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