Senate hears that the industry "will sell any information about any person regardless of sensitivity for 7.9 cents a name."

WASHINGTON – A Senate panel released a report and held a hearing before the holiday break on the multibillion-dollar and largely unregulated data broker industry, which showed that these firms have several avenues to collect sensitive data on consumers.

To better understand how firms in the industry operate, the Senate Commerce Committee reached out last year to nine companies that sell consumer data for marketing purposes. Based on this information, the committee staff was able to draw some conclusions in a 36-page report.

Data brokers collect a huge volume of detailed data about consumers, from what illnesses they may have, to what car they own and what types of soap they buy. They use this information to create consumer profiles that categorize consumers, or “score” them, without their consent.

Data brokers also identify financially vulnerable consumers by putting them into categories like “rural and barely making it,” “ethnic second city strugglers,” and “credit-crunched: city families.”

Credit scores and medical records are not available to data brokers under federal law, but these “e-scores” are not covered by those laws

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