If you read here often enough you know I have wanted the US government to license and excise tax the data sellers out there and from what I have read from this story and the images, the whole formatting was
there too, so it kind of stinks of an inside job of someone selling the data to other brokers. There’s billions of dollars made selling data and we don’t know who they are or what they sell. The FTC in the US just turns a blind eye to the situation.
The Whistleblower went to a newspaper and broke the story. The data was used by brokers to solicit for investments of course. They knew everything about the potential client. “The Mail” the UK paper contacted the bank and has launched their investigation into the matter. What kind of fines will result now…we know Barclays has their LIBOR issues. If it happened in the UK, what are the chances of it happening here in the US…about the same…data selling epidemic is alive and well. I have had people tell me they get calls from wellness programs telling them they are pre-diabetic and nobody ever talked to them about it…remember you have drug stores and insurers scraping and mining all kind of records. Image below from “The Mail” shows the formatting on what they had.
In the latest effort here Senator Rockefeller sent a letter to a company that sells medical data and mailing lists.
Senator Rockefeller Sends Precedent Setting Letters to Data Brokers Today, MEDbase 200 One Of Them…
If you read the entire article the one broker office closed up shop and even bleached everything in the office so as not to leave a trace. The whistleblower says the data selling goes on all the time and again if you read here enough you know I’m all over that as it’s the wild west out there..and we have all kinds of folks talking about it, but nothing gets done..they all run from math and creating an IT infrastructure to help regulate any of it.
I have been telling the privacy folks that until you get the index created as to “who’s selling data” you might as well shut up. The records from Barclay even had the individual’s health issues, insurance polices and more.
Folks that live in the UK have told me too that the health insurance business is a pretty bottom feeder operation over there too with agents paying for files or try to steal them so they can go after them for a sale. In Germany, health insurance salesmen are the bottom feeders of all jobs to be had, I wrote about that a couple years ago and my friends in the UK said it’s pretty much the same here. Oh it’s time to watch the video on the game called “Data Dealer” again…if you have not seen it already..as I have used it a couple of times at the Quack. We have the epidemic floating around with clinical trial data too. These folks made the video to exploit the epidemic as I call it.
Next Up In The US Data Selling Epidemic- Clinical Trial Data Mining Recruiters Buying From Credits Agencies, Banks And Who Knows Where Else…
Oh and by the way here’s joint effort from Facebook teaming up with Barclays to teach more folks how to write code…you never know when more data might become available to slice and dice for sale…
Big Difference Between the Philanthropy and Technology Efforts Of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, Gates Is Focused On “Real World Tech Solutions” While The Zuckerberg Focus Remains in “Virtual World Solutions”–The Gates Maturity Has It’s Rank And Value
Why does Facebook need to partner with a bank in the UK, Barclays to fund a start up? (Web for Everyone) If you follow that link though the first thing that hits you is a survey, what else. Why does Facebook need Barclays for this, they have the money or is this a way to get some cheap code writers for Barclays to work a code for cash model? In addition PBS has an upcoming documentary that’s due in February to show how the social networking companies are making money hand over fist with collecting and selling your data as well as exposing you to ads, two things only created gold.
I have suggested licensing and excise taxing data sellers in the US for two years now and maybe it’s a good international solution too…would give enforcement everywhere leg to stand on and the ability to inquire. BD
Senator Rockefeller Puts the Data Sellers on Notice–We Need to Index and License All Data Sellers to Include Banks, Insurers And Other Companies In Addition to the Data Brokers..
Today, one of these loose ends got some much needed public exposure after the Daily Mail, of all places, reported that it had been approached by a whistleblower, who revealed that in one of the biggest breaches of bank secrecy, Barclays had stolen and sold the confidential personal and financial data of up to 27,000 clients to the highest market bidder, in most cases rogue traders who had seen Glengarry Glen Ross one too many times, and who would then use Jordan Belfort-inspired tactics to sell money losing investment products to those unlucky thousands who had entrusted their data to the bank.
The sources of the breached and stolen files was data collected from customers 
who had sought financial advice from the bank, and passed on their details during meetings with an adviser. The consultations included filling out questionnaires - or ‘psychometric tests’ - which revealed their attitude to risk. That information could be exploited to persuade victims to buy into questionable investments.
The whistleblower first became aware of the Barclays leads in September when the boss of the brokerage firm asked him to sell them to other traders. ‘The obvious question I asked was, “These are fantastic leads, why are you not using them yourself?”
‘He replied, “We have – sell it as secondary data.” He had got all he could out of them. New, they were worth £50 per file. He asked us to sell for £8.’
The whistleblower showed the leads to a select group of brokers ‘who thought they were amazing’, but eventually decided not to sell.
I was given the Barclays ‘leads’ after they had been ‘rinsed’ - or used up - and told to sell them to other brokers.
In the end, I didn’t do this because I thought it was wrong - and by that time I’d had enough of the whole business.
I worked at a type of brokerage known in the industry as a ‘spank shop’, operating from rented offices outside London or even in the City.
The brokers ‘spank’ or punish people over the phone by advising them to invest in certain commodities which make lots of money for the broker, but not the investor.
The broker sells the commodity for such a massive mark up that it eliminates any opportunity the investor has to make money. The industry gets young people, brainwashes them, shows them a high end lifestyle and trains them to pull private investors.
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