Monday, September 2, 2013

Government agencies at all levels selling personal data to marketers

(NaturalNews) How many times have you gone to your mailbox and found it stuffed with useless junk mail? If you're like most Americans, you find that happens a lot.

One of the major reasons why as much as 60 percent of the mail we get is worthless to us - and why we tend to get more of it after major life events - is because government agencies at virtually all levels are selling your personal information to scores of direct marketers.

Per CBS4 in Denver:

Eric Meer is a small business owner who works out of his home in Denver's Stapleton neighborhood. Meer says he was deluged by direct mail after registering his small business with the Colorado Secretary of State. He says many of the ads he received were deceptive asking him to pay fees that he wasn't required to pay.

'It feels like betrayal'

Immediately Meer says he got a hunch that the Colorado Secretary of State's office sold his business info to marketing firms. The local CBS affiliate found out that his hunch was correct; last year, the Secretary of State's office raked in some $59,000 by selling business registration data.

Once again, so much for the Fourth Amendment's privacy protections. As usual, everyone except the government has to respect it.

"It feels like a betrayal," Meer said in what we believe is an understatement of epic proportions. "Because our government is supposed to protect us, not to sell our information and profit from us."

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