We have a Double Whammy in the Making...you get to pay 20 cents to read some news articles while the money gets charged to your credit card.  Why is this a double whammy?  Read on…

You can read the update in full on my blog but papers now are dealing with a new start up company that will generate some revenue for the papers..there's one side and you have to pay and the second is the data selling aspect.  Also you may be paying for an article written by a bot as most of the major papers are relying on bots to write a lot of news today. 

If you think the news articles start looking the same for content, you are correct as the journobots can take an article written by a journalist and rewrite it with a human programmed algorithm to look like a brand new story from another human writing their view…wrong…it’s a programmed algorithm doing the work and it does it so well that it can determine how to avoid plagiarism so nobody gets in trouble that
.  Gee just think, they need one “real” journalist to write the initial article and then the “knock off jounobots” can go to work and create dozens if not hundreds of articles re-arranged to legally be correct and make you think that due to the number of articles you are reading, “that’s a areal hot topic”..wrong..you got duped again and you will follow the consensus of what you see out there.  Think news is not being rigged to a degree?  You better think again and choose what you read wisely as there’s still a lot of good stuff reported by all means but eh sharks to expand upon it and do “knock off news” with bots is very much alive and well.  There are limitations to what the bots can do with reporting news and they will and do miss the “human insight” a lot as they are not programmed to go there, they can’t do it. 

So while you pay to read, the data miners will be picking this up to sell what you read and when to data sellers.  Flash back to the company Argus that buys your credit card transactions and then scores you and sells both the scores and the data to banks, insurers and a whole lot more.  Here's the entire story to include how the bots are writing the news and how this too will become a way for markets to also rig the news that influences the bots on their trading.

Here’s the full story from the Medical Quack…

http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/03/major-us-newspapers-sign-up-and-invest.html

Let’s Talk Anthem Data Breach

Below is a part of recent post I made at the Medical Quack…

We have a somewhat new breed of hackers out there today.  I'm sure by now you have read one of the many articles about what was taken, but pretty much it was demographics on the insured or prior insured.  80 million files is a lot of data.  Today's hackers want to make money selling data too.  If there was a cause or someone felt they had been wronged someway, we probably would have seen something posted on Pirate’s Bay or some other site as such.  If that were the case the hackers would have stopped at a much smaller number of accounts.  Now we have everyone moving in to take a look, HHS is going to do their investigation and so are several states and a national insurers group as well.  We can’t leave out the lawyers here too as the firm of Hagens Berman is in there for their investigation too.

You might think that's an odd statement to make but it's true.   With 80 million files, that's a lot of data to repackage and sell.  Repackaging is when a data base is sold from company A to company B who may just happen to have data base C sitting around so they query and merge the two together and now you have a brand new repackaged data base.  But let's say there were errors and flaws in either or both, well those move right along with it.

There's no record of who's merging and selling data today and it's a business in the US that is worth $180 billion a year, so see why the hackers want data?  They may sit on it for months and do nothing until things cool off.

The big thing right now though is the connection with SSNs and IRS as they don't match up names and SSNs...as a matter of fact 40% of fake tax returns sail right on through and pay off.  Those who were breached will face this every year for gosh knows how long.  If you missed the news of late, due to tons of fraudulent returns filed, TuboTax has put all refunds on hold temporarily.

See the video from 60 Minutes on the Tax Hole

For three years now I have had a campaign going to index and license all who sell data.  Why?  Well for one, who are they..here's a company (link below) you have never heard of that buys our credit card data, scores and analyzes the data and sells it to banks and insurers as well as our own consumer financial protection bureau, so what's up with that one?  Ever hear of Argus?  Read the link below and see how they score and analyze your data and sell it to insurers, banks and even the good old US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  That last one is nuts as Richard Cordray is over his head in that agency with no data mechanics logic. 

Argus- a Big Data Seller-your credit card transactions

This is very serious with Blue Cross and they have other battles as well.  They also have sunk in $100 million to create what is called an HIE, a facility that allows hospitals to sore and share records between hospitals.  It's not going to be a go now you can almost best with Cal Index.

If the files in fact are now in China, well they could be repackaged and sold both there and here.  The danger of course is that companies without knowing could be buying breached and flawed data.

Remember in the bulk data selling business, they don't care and flawed data gets the same price as good data.

The need is now two fold for licensing, one to help us consumers track down and get the flawed data fix and this is growing all the time with sloppy data work, I see it all the time.The second reason is to make sure that data sold or linked contains a license reference so the buyer is not accidently buying breached and stolen data. Also the thieves could do all kinds of damage and flaw more of it on purpose if they wanted.

I have been beating this drum for 3 years now to pass a law that requires licensing for data selling and it goes without enough attention.  Lawyers have been out in the boondocks thinking this industry could self regulate, not when you have $180 billion made at year doing this.  Shoot Walgreens and CVS each pull in 1 to 2 billion a year just selling data and I would hate to see the huge dollars that United Healthcare and all their subsidiaries make hawking data, it would be a lot larger than Walgreens or CVS as they are like the #2 or #3 healthcare data seller entity.  You can see that all over various reports that have been on the web for the last few years.

This is just really nasty stuff and again I hope my campaign catches on real soon as I'm making a big stink about it as I started writing the FTC and a few members of Congress three years ago.  We do need a law and the FTC needs that law to take more action as well.  This is an interesting page to look at, a visual of all the hacking going on in the world from Norse.  Take one look and you'll see how busy the hacking world is out there, screenshot on the right here.

Live Data Attacks Happening Right now

One thing for sure, Anthem might have to cut back on their Stock Buy Backs as this will prove to be very expensive.  Like I said they want some of this multi billion dollar action and they could sit on it for months or a year before they might swing into action, when the heat blows over.  This is a different type of hacker who doesn’t want to be found really, they want money and are not out pushing a cause.

What is Facebook doing in here for one?  That’s a really good question is it not? 

One Big Reason – Need to License ALL Data Sellers in the US – Who Are They?

Here we go again, yet one more case with the FTC charging a data broker with selling consumer’s financial details to those committing fraud.  It was in the news this week that bank profits were down 17% so be aware they are coming to collect and sell your data.  In addition, TD Bank announced they are using the big data broker Acxiom now to issue credit cards.  We really get very little from our Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as I have written.   This was the job Senator Warren was supposed to get but was over looked by the President if you remember and now with the small actions that take place out of this agency, it’s beginning to look like Richard Cordray was maybe recommended by the likes of Jamie Dimon and the folks at Citi? 

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Goes After Some Low Hanging Fruit With Prepaid Credit Card Rules–They Sell Your Data Too But Cordray Didn’t Address Any Of The Privacy Issues At All Here..

A while back to my surprise and out of the blue, I had Acxiom approach me on Twitter and that’s pretty rare at they normally don’t want a lot of attention for obvious reasons. 

Online Data Brokers Persist, Listing Consumers on Chronic Disease Mailing Lists And More–Need To License and Index All data sellers, Brokers, Banks, Companies, Otherwise You Don’t Have a Complete Listing of Who They Are…

Here’s another case that’s been in the works for a few year and it’s worth a read as 2/3 of the US population was in this breach for exposure…huge.

One Really Good Reason to License and Excise data sellers, Huge Breach As the “Data Selling Epidemic” Both Legally and Illegally Continues To Grow-All We Have Are Lawyers Who Only Do Verbiage While “Code Runs Hog Ass Wild” -Due Diligence is Dead

You can read this article from the New York Times…again this is a huge problem and please donate a few dollars if you can to help get a law passed requiring all those who sell data to be licensed.  This is is like the “wild west” currently and think of how many other cases are probably out there as well.  If data sellers were licensed we would at least be able to find them and determine what kind of data is being sold about us. 

Data Broker Is Charged With Selling Consumers’ Financial Details to ‘Fraudsters’

This week, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit claiming that LeapLab, a data broker in Nevada, sold intimate details about several hundred thousand people, including their Social Security numbers and bank account numbers, to marketers and other companies that had no legitimate need for that data.

One of the data purchasers, Ideal Financial Solutions of Las Vegas, reportedly used the records it bought to make unauthorized withdrawals from consumers’ bank accounts, according to a separate federal lawsuit.

The complaints are part of a multiyear government crackdown on fraudulent debt collection and other scams that target people in financial distress. But the case against LeapLab indicates that federal regulators are now widening their investigation to include the middlemen who traffic in the kind of closely held consumer details that can make consumers vulnerable to financial scams.

“They sold information that could only be used for illegitimate purposes and that is what happened,” said James A. Kohm, associate director of the division of enforcement in the F.T.C.’s consumer protection bureau.

Federal regulators said that one company, Ideal Financial Solutions, bought at least 2.2 million consumer dossiers from LeapLab and other information middlemen.

Be Aware of All the New Fintech Apps Out There…

Not only mHealth consumers apps but now we have to be concerned about Fintech apps.  What are these?  These are apps now being built by banks and other financial institutions. 

As you may or may not be aware of everyone wants to know what your habits are and now wants to study your behavior patterns.  Initially this was not so bad when all ad companies wanted to do was study your interests on line so they could target you with ads that would interest you.  That’s been around for years and now with the Data Selling Epidemic, things are little dicier out there today as the bank or company uses the data and then sells it to someone else.

It’s not just the data anymore either as the behavior analytic folks come into play, and some of these are 3rd parties that also “score” you.  The World Privacy Forum called this “The Secret Scoring of America” in their report earlier this year.  If you have not read the report, I did a blog post on what this entails and have links to the actual report itself. 

World Privacy Forum Report - The Scoring of America: How Secret Consumer Scores Threaten Your Privacy and Your Future - One Big Element that Fuels the Continued Attack of Killer Algorithms & Demise of the Middle Class Creating Profiteering And/Or Denial of Access

This, of course is a bit of an invasion of our privacy, or should I say what’s left of it.  You can use the link below right from the American Banker blog and read more about this as it is marketed from the other end. 

To Optimize the Channel Experience, Understand End-User Behaviors

If you didn’t happen to catch the news about TD Bank and Acxiom, the big data broker, it’s worth reading.  They are very motivated to capture and sell more data as Acxiom is not making money right now either, so pay attention.  It’s very interesting when a bank is going to team up with a huge personal data broker that sells your data all over the web, and much of the data found on your in their files is probably flawed, with a bank to be issuing credit cards and doing the approvals, you think?  I just wrote to the FTC on this matter recently as well.  Here’s the article below and again it’s all about making money with your data.

TD Bank Selects Acxiom for Marketing Database Management and Partner Marketing Infrastructure

“We are honored to have TD Bank as an Acxiom card-issuing client,” said Phil Lore, Group Vice President of Sales at Acxiom. “We look forward to working with progressive financial services companies like TD Bank to drive innovation and deeper customer engagement.”

You may also want to pay attention to the fact that all the major banks and credit card companies are opening up labs in the Silicon Valley.  Recently we heard NY Mellon and American Express are moving right in.  What are they doing there?  Creating apps for consumers to use with banking.  They vary a lot and the ones to watch out for, just like we do in healthcare are the ones that mine and sell your data, or your data profile.  Let’s face it too, re-matching data is not that hard to do either and it depends how much money will be made on whether or not your data gets re-matched.  They get more money if any analytics are performed on the data they have and again that drums up the profits on how much money they can make.

Remember too that if you get a “bad” score, and worse yet a bad score based on flawed data, well your screwed as that travels all over as you get repackaged and resold again and again.  This is what leads to inequality acceleration in the US, as you don’t even get a chance anymore as your “secret scores” will keep you out of the ball game every time.  We watched MasterCard do it over the last year and now they are even selling your credit card transaction data to hospitals and the same hospital is also buying Acxiom data about their patients and expecting doctors to go over this data with them.  Doctors don’t want to do this as they are in fact very important with our care, not going through what we spend and where.  That’s not their job and all of this data does not lead to any better care, just more money

Oh Crap, Now Hospitals Are Now Buying Data From Acxiom - Data Selling Epidemic Continues to Evade on Personal Privacy As “Algo Duped-Stat Rat” People Try to Implement Virtual Models That Won’t Work…

Would you not like to see apps and the companies and banks who create these apps to mine and steal your data be licensed so we know who they are and what kind of data they sell?  If so, consider donating if you would so we can get a law passed to do just that. 

Don’t look for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as they are over there with the banks and insurers buying up our credit card transaction and analyzed scores.  Remember the Bureau works as part of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, who are supposed to be regulating banks.  They are of course but not doing much.  It’s more of a continued farce as if you go to the home page of the CFPB, they are running a campaign asking “what kind of financial apps do you want”…great news…so we can have more that mine and scrape our data for sale…and so the banks can make more money? 

Argus Analytics Produces “Share of Credit Card” Data On Consumers - Digs Up The Dirt on Your Credit Card Behavior Patterns-US Consumer Protection Agency Is A Client-We Are Paying for Richard Cordray’s Slow Education Process

This is not an easy law to get in place of course and the banks and companies don’t want you to know, but could you imagine what you could see as a look up on where all your data gets sold?  This is all about transparency and being able to make a more informed decision as a consumer, not having banks further profit from gobbling up your data and selling it.  Scoring has been around for a long time and where the change took place is when they all started selling it and they don’t care if it’s accurate or not as bad data gets the same price as good data.  They don’t care but it can deny you access in more ways than you think.

In addition, there’s a lot more information at the World Privacy Forum where you can read up as well. 

Take a look from the World Privacy Forum page as reproduced below, these are data miners you can’t opt out of.  More information can be found here at their website.  Your bank, insurer or other company might be buying records from some or all of these entities.

Again this why we need that law passed as it won’t stop the data selling, but it would help keeps things a little better aligned and help us making better choices when we know where our data is being sold, what kind of data and to what kind of companies or banks.  Be aware of many of the Fintech apps as they do things on the back end to collect and sell your data. 

555-1212.com
Website | Privacy Policy | Opt Out Page | Offers Data Opt Out: No

Abika (Accusearch)
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Acculist
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AmericaList
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Ancestor Hunt
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Ancestral Findings
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Background Check Gateway
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Background Check International (BCI) (Based in Nigeria)
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Background Records Registry
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Background-Check-Only.com
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BackgroundFinder.com
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Backgroundsearcher
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Bankruptreport.com
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BCS Background Screening, LLC
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Birth Database (affiliated with Bored.com)
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Cell Reverse Search
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Confi-check Inc
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Criminal Screen
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Criminal Watch Dog
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CupidScreen
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DeadBeatCustomerList
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Deadbeattenant.net
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Directory Assistance Plus
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Do Not Rent To.com
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DocuSearch Investigations
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e-Merges
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Easy Background Check
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Easybackgrounds.com
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eFind Out the Truth (formerly affiliated with OnlineBackgroundChecks.com, CellularPhoneRecords.com, eMailBreaks.com)
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Enformion
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FindPublicRecords.com
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Government-Records.org
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Govpolicerecords
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HD Publishing
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hexum criminal search
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HostGator
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Identity Crawler
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InfoPay
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Integrascan
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Integrity (affiliated with Aristotle)
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Intel Registry
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ip2location
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License Plate Search
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LLC Haines Criss+Cross
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LookupExpert
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Lost People
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LssI Data
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Marriage Database
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Melissa Data
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Mugshots.mobi
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Mugshots Online
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National Background Check
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NationalPublicData
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NumberGuru
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Online Reverse Lookup
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OnlineSearches (publicrecords.onlinesearches.com)
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OPENOnline
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People Search (http://easytolocate.com/)
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PeopleSearch.net
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Phones Book
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pipl
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Plus Address.com
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Property Record Pro.com
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Public Data
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Public Record Results
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Public Record Site
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Public Records Service (SmartName)
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PublicRecordCenter
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Recorded Future
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Records.com
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Reunion.com (Part of MyLife.com)
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Reverse Phone Check
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Reversemobile.com
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Reversephonecheck.com
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ReversePhoneferret.com
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Search Detective (affiliated with Gov-Records)
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Search Systems
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Skip Ease
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Snoopstation.com/
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SSNValidator
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Suarez Corporation Industries
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Super Pages
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SuperGuarantee.com
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Superpages.com
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Tenancy Bureau Inc
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The Landlord Protection Agency
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The People Finder
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Thepublicrecords.com
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TheRetailEquation
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TLO Online Investigative Systems (used to be Merlin Information Systems)
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Top People Finder
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Top People Search
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Trial Pay
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US Reverse Phone Check
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USA PhoneInfo (associated with USA People Directory )
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USA Trace
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Vebidoo
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VerifyPhone.com
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Vital Search Worldwide
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Voter Factory
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W9R.com
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Who Called Us
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World Vital Records
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Your Own Private Eye
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ZabbyDabby.com
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Big Money Made Selling Your Prescription Data…

Pay attention to what’s going on out there and this article doesn’t even touch on what information is sent out from the Pharmacy Benefit Managers to other sources and how they use algorithms to create a medication adherence score on every script you fill.  Yes you get a profile and they update the “scoring” on you each time. 

The Big Money In Selling Prescription Data (Article from Bloomberg)

Since the days of 19th century remedies such as castor oil laxatives and mercury syphilis tablets, pharmacists and patients have had a tacit understanding: Whatever you buy is confidential. No longer. Drugmakers and Internet companies are quietly joining forces to link pharmacy records with registrations at websites to target ads to people reflecting their health conditions and their prescription drugs.

In a process known as a matchback, third-party companies assign patients unique numerical codes based on their prescription-drug records. Websites use the same process to assign codes to registered users. Then databases can be linked—without names changing hands. That lets pharmaceutical companies identify groups who use a specific medicine and send them tailored Web ads.

Drug companies say the technique complies with federal medical privacy laws because patients’ names are concealed. Still, critics see it as a breach of confidentiality. “Marketers are treating our health data as if we were buying a pair of pants or a book,” says Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy group in Washington. “That’s unconscionable. (related post about CVS Below)

CVS to Open New E-Commerce Technology Centers in Boston, New York and Palo Alto– Need “New Code” to Make Bigger Profits While They And Others Continue to Destroy “US Consumer Dignity” With the Exploitations…

“It involves tracking patients over time anonymously,” says Jody Fisher, director of U.S. product management for IMS, which has dossiers on more than 500 million patients worldwide. “It helps all stakeholders identify patterns of behavior that make delivery of health care more efficient.”

For decades, retailers have hired marketing firms to link the names on sales receipts to lists of people who were sent coupons, aiming to boost sales of everything from soap to oatmeal. Now that data mining has enabled pharmacy companies to adopt the practice, some critics say technological advances are undoing protections provided by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the federal medical privacy law. Spokespeople for Express Scripts and CVS say the prescription information they sell is anonymous and complies with HIPAA.

Besides IMS, other data shops that perform matchbacks include Symphony Health Solutions and startup Crossix Solutions. A Symphony spokeswoman didn’t respond to messages. Crossix performs matchbacks only for websites whose users opt in, often by registering, says co-founder Asaf Evenhaim. The company uses multiple layers of anonymization to ensure that patient identities can’t be learned, he says. “There’s a difference between making a link and knowing who a person is,” he says.

Matchbacks have solved one of Big Pharma’s biggest marketing headaches: the layers of physicians, pharmacists, and insurers that stood between drugmakers and patients in the past. “This is the holy grail for every pharmaceutical company, to know that there’s a way to look back to actual script information,” says targeted-ad pioneer Helene Monat.

Since 2011, Yahoo! (YHOO), the biggest U.S. Web portal, has used IMS to perform matchbacks and target online ads to groups of registered users who are located in areas with a high incidence of specific health conditions, says spokeswoman Suzanne Philion. About 100 million people have records in the databases of IMS and Yahoo, says Bill Drummy, chief executive officer of ad agency Heartbeat Ideas, who’s worked with both companies. Yahoo and IMS declined to comment on the number. “There are certain sensitive medical categories which we exclude from any ad targeting, and all ads and ad targeting are in full compliance with HIPAA,” Philion wrote in an e-mail.

Using matchbacks can add as much as $100,000 to the cost of a digital drug-advertising campaign, Drummy says. From 12 percent to 25 percent of prospects who visit a brand website go on to seek a prescription for that drug from a doctor, an insight gleaned by performing matchbacks, he says. So drugmakers’ interest in the process is unlikely to cool. Says Jim Curtis, chief revenue officer of Remedy Health Media: “It used to be very innovative, and now it is a necessity.”

An online service allowing consumers to pay their medical bills failed to adequately inform them that it would also try to collect highly detailed medical information from their pharmacies, medical labs and insurance companies, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said.

The FTC has reached a proposed settlement with PaymentsMD, an Atlanta health billing company, and former CEO Michael Hughes requiring the company to destroy any medical information it collected related to its separate online medical records service, Patient Health Report, the agency said Wednesday.

PaymentsMD “deceptively” used the sign-up process for its billing service to seek customers’ consent to obtain detailed medical information, the FTC said in a press release.

PaymentsMD didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment on the settlement. A lawyer for Hughes declined to comment.

PaymentsMD, which launched an expanded medical payments service in 2008, began developing a separate online medical records service with a partner in 2012, the FTC said. To populate the medical records, the company altered the registration process for its billing portal to include permission for the company and its partners to contact health care providers to obtain their medical information, the agency alleged.

The company asked customers consent to the collection of their health information by signing off on four authorizations presented in small windows on the website, displaying only six lines of an extensive text at one time, the FTC alleged. Customers could accept all four authorizations by clicking one box, the agency said.

PaymentsMD customers registering for the Patient Portal billing service would have “reasonably believed” that the authorizations were for billing, not for the collection of medical records, the agency said in its complaints.

“Consumers’ health information is as sensitive as it gets,” Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “Using deceptive tactics to gain consumers’ ‘permission’ to collect their full health history is contrary to the most basic privacy principles.”

The medical information PaymentsMD requested included customers’ prescriptions, procedures, medical diagnoses, lab tests performed and their results, and other information, the FTC said.

In all but one case, the health care providers contacted for data refused to comply with PaymentsMD’s requests, the FTC said. In some cases, company requested medical information about children, the agency said.

After PaymentsMD began telling customers it was attempting to collect their health information, the company received “numerous” complaints from people who believed they had signed up only for a billing portal and not an online health record, the agency said.

Under the proposed settlements, PaymentsMD and former CEO Hughes are banned from deceiving consumers about the way they collect and use information, and they must obtain customers’ express consent before collecting their health information from a third party.