{"id":19925,"date":"2023-11-07T01:21:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T07:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=19925"},"modified":"2023-11-07T01:21:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T07:21:40","slug":"u-s-service-members-data-is-easy-and-cheap-to-purchase-online-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=19925","title":{"rendered":"U.S. service members\u2019 data is easy and cheap to purchase online, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Personal information about active-duty U.S. service members is cheap, easy to buy and widely advertised by data brokers who sell Americans\u2019 data, according to a Duke University study published Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers behind the study said they purchased a variety of data including names, phone numbers, addresses and sometimes even information like the names of service members\u2019 children, their marital status, net worth and credit rating, often for as little as 12 cents per person. In total, the researchers bought nearly 50,000 service members\u2019 records for a little over $10,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research has prompted fears that a lack of major regulation in the data brokerage sector may constitute a national security risk. Senators who received an advance look at the Duke study said in emailed statements that it highlighted the need for action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis report further solidifies the need to address this gaping hole in the protection of U.S. servicemembers,\u201d said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. \u201cWe must act in the interest of national security and protect those who defend our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called the findings \u201ca sobering wake-up call for policy makers that the data broker industry is out of control and poses a serious threat to U.S. national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study found more than 500 data broker websites that advertised information on service members, though some refused to sell that information when they realized the buyers were academic researchers. Others required a nondisclosure agreement. The Duke researchers ultimately purchased thousands of records from three brokers, which they did not name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Sherman, a fellow at Duke\u2019s Sanford School of Public Policy, which conducted the study, said the findings highlight a side of privacy regulation that\u2019s less often discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have this interesting policy gap, which is our privacy conversations are primarily about consumer privacy,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really important, but they don\u2019t think much about national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some brokers offered records specific to certain areas, which could help a purchaser determine where an active-duty military service member is stationed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The availability of service members\u2019 data is considered a national security concern because it can be used by foreign spies to identify and court Americans with access to state secrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInformation on people that you don\u2019t want being approached by foreign intelligence services being reasonably easy to acquire is not a good situation,\u201d Jeff Asher, a former CIA officer, told NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A panel commissioned by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report<\/a> this July that found U.S. intelligence agencies routinely purchase such \u201ccommercially available information\u201d on Americans with little issue or oversight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is also a growing recognition that CAI, as a generally available resource, offers intelligence benefits to our adversaries,\u201d the panel found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Pentagon spokesperson didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some countries, particularly in the European Union, have strict regulations to guide industry practices of collecting, packaging, buying and selling personal information. U.S. law has put some limitations on medical data and information on young children, but Congress has failed to agree on a general data privacy bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd not to sound like a broken record, but our country desperately needs a comprehensive consumer privacy law here, to limit the collection, retention and sale of sensitive personal information from the start,\u201d Wyden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Personal information about active-duty U.S. service members is cheap, easy to buy and widely advertised by data brokers who sell Americans\u2019 data, according to a Duke University study published Monday. The researchers behind the study said they purchased a variety of data including names, phone numbers, addresses and sometimes even information like the names of service […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":19926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[23973,23969,9533,23970,23972,1586,6560,23971],"class_list":["post-19925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","tag-12-cents","tag-data-brokerage-industry","tag-information","tag-lack-of-regulation","tag-national-security-risk","tag-price","tag-purchase","tag-us-military-personnel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19927,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19925\/revisions\/19927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}