A bipartisan group of US House members sent letters to major data brokers about the privacy implications of data aggregation of consumer data.
“By combining data from numerous offline and online sources, data brokers have developed hidden dossiers on almost every U.S. consumer. This large scale aggregation of the personal information of hundreds of millions of American citizens raises a number of serious privacy concerns", the lawmakers wrote in the letter quoted by The Hill newspaper.
In its response, the DMA said that data brokers are engaged in “legitimate commercial data practices that are essential to America’s job creation, economic growth and global leadership…unnecessary restrictions on marketing could undermine economic and job growth.”
The association warned: “New restrictions on data or third-party data providers could have negative consequences not only for data providers, but for the countless entities that rely on such data sources to improve their marketing and grow their businesses. Small companies are especially reliant on third-party data because they do not have the resources to compile comparable data on their own.”
It recommended that industry regulate itself regarding privacy issues raised by consumer data aggregation. “In areas such as online behavioral advertising, the DMA and its partners have demonstrated that self-regulation delivers robust yet flexible standards that adapt quickly to technological changes and are enforceable against participating companies.”