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this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2023
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Ask Lemmy
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Many of the services you're thinking of don't actually sell user data. They use user data to target ads.
Want to know who actually sells your personal information? You can start with the direct-mail companies that enable postal spam aka "junk mail". They will happily sell you a list of the names and physical mailing addresses of people meeting whatever demographic criteria you choose to name.
If you ask Google or Facebook to disclose to you the locations of (say) African-American women of childbearing age in the Boston area, they will tell you 404 Not Found. But the direct-mail people will sell you a list of their mailing addresses.
Yes, this service has been used maliciously.
every service with an api can be used maliciously at a large scale. but i am referring to how companies actively invade our privacy to then unsafely store the stolen data.