• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, October 7, 2004

Exactly when was it that the Internet turned into that wild-eyed, blood thirsty, hairy monster that hides under every kid's bed just waiting for a tentative foot to descend toward the floor so it can drag the child to a horrible death amid the dust bunnies, comic books, socks, and Lego bits that also live under the bed?

To most people, the Internet turned scary after they bought lots of technology stocks that gave them the momentary fantasy of being on the next Forbes 400 list, but left them with barely enough to buy an annual subscription to The Capitalist Tool. But to others, who each day wrap themselves in the cloak of "privacy" the Internet has always been the monster under the bed.

But the fact is, even without the Internet, we live in a world where your "privacy" is anything but your own. Nearly every form you fill out with personal information from mortgages applications to car registrations to magazine subscriptions to warranty cards to sweepstakes entry forms is recorded in someone's data base and sold to someone else. Virtually everything you purchase is recorded and added to a file that identifies you as a recent car buyer, a recent home buyer, a recent buyer of a size 8 navy blue cardigan sweater, a recent buyer of asthma medicine.

Don't believe me? Go to data broker Experian's Web site where you will find out that the company traffics information on approximately 215 million individuals including their name, address, ZIP code, age, homeownership, presence of children, ethnicity, and occupation. They collect this information "from more than 3,200 original public and proprietary sources, including the following:

• Telephone directory white pages
• Property/realty records, such as property deeds
• Product registrations and surveys
• Mail-order transactions
• Other proprietary sources
• Aggregated credit information
• Aggregated motor vehicle information
• Census data"

Experian slices and dices and cross matches all these little bits of data about you and sells them (mostly to snail mailers) offering additional targeting based on traits and activities such as people expecting a baby; people with allergies, arthritis or high blood pressure; people whose interests vary from crafts to travel; from buyers of books to owners of compact disk players and computers.

Its "product data covers apparel, entertainment, home décor, children's merchandise, and many other categories such as automotive, business and financial, health/fitness, travel."

Just how detailed can this data be? According to a 1997 New York Times story Metromail (now part of Experian) held "more than 900 tidbits (about one woman's life) going back to 1987. Laid out on 25 closely printed pages of spreadsheets were not only her income, marital status, hobbies and ailments, but whether she had dentures, the brands of antacid tablets she had taken, how often she had used room deodorizers, sleeping aids, and hemorrhoid remedies."

All this long before anyone thought of passive RFID tags, checkout scanners that data base every purchase, or security video cameras.

The fact is, we willingly give up personal identifiable information to all sorts of offline companies who resell it. A white paper on the Experian sites explains: "The information acquired from surveys and questionnaires that consumers volunteer to complete is usually reliable and frank. These consumers may be in the mood to buy. Individuals supply their information in the hopes of receiving offers and promotions that meet their specific needs and lifestyles.

Because these consumers have taken the time to fill out a detailed questionnaire and mail it in, they are likely to be more mail responsive. Responsible self-reported data collectors provide the respondent with appropriate disclosure about who is collecting the data and how it will be used. Informed consumers willingly share their information for marketing purposes."

Everyone knows that magazines sell the personal information you provide for a subscription. And that if you make one little catalog purchase that you are opening the flood gates for dozens more catalogs to multiply in your mail box. But who knew that floral delivery companies will sell who you give flowers to on their birthday; that your bank sells your balance information to stock brokers; and that charities trade your giving history to one another?

Alexander Solzhenitsyn once wrote: "As every man goes through life he fills in a number of forms for the record [that become like invisible threads]. Every man, permanently aware of his own invisible threads, naturally develops a respect for the people who manipulate the threads."

He was writing about a government that he came to fear. But you should worry about the invisible threads already around you, before you start fearing the imaginary beast under the bed.