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A Profile is a Collection of Information About You |
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Name |
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Address |
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Phone number(s) |
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Details of credit card transactions |
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A detailed record of your Web surfing |
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Information from the forms and questionnaires you fill out |
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Auto registration data (in most states) |
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Births, deaths, marriages and divorce information |
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Property sales, mortgages, credit history |
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Warranty cards, magazine subscriptions |
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Toll-free and 900 numbers |
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School directories |
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Sweepstakes entries |
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Have you ever used a credit card?
Have you ever dialed an 800-number?
Have you ever surfed the Web?
Companies collect information about you every day.
The information they collect is called a profile.
These companies then sell your profile to marketers, who in turn
send you junk mail and try to call you.
Everyone who participates in society and the economy has been
profiled. Profiles are the result of a plethora of transactional
data that consumers generate everyday in the ordinary course of
their life.
What if you use an 800 number to buy a pair of shoes from a catalog
with your credit card? You've just added data to your profile
with the phone company, the catalog merchandiser and your credit
card company. Your personal information gets captured by all three
companies who consider it their commerical property.
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