Businesses Losing Control of Their Data--Consumer Privacy Threatened
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- To fulfill the explosive influx of data desperation, data brokers seem to regularly pivot to unethical methods. "More than ever, companies must beware of the potential for data leaks from within their company," warns Sky Cassidy, CEO of MountainTop Data. Data brokers are currently feeding off of businesses and people through email plugins and then selling this information to clients for sales, marketing, and recruitment projects. Data brokers like ZoomInfo, first entice business owners by offering 10 free contacts per month for clients using their "community" free version. This is an email plugin that scrapes both inbound and outbound emails of anyone who installs it, essentially taking 100's of names from one person in exchange for only 10 in return. Another broker, Clearview AI is also under investigation for using screened methods to scrape photos from social media networks. Email marketing, however, is still the number one way to reach customers, so companies must learn ways to mitigate dirty data.
Current Data Brokers Under Penalty
ZoomInfo uses two primary methods that generate the vast majority of their data, including scraping the web for company and contact information through their proprietary web crawler called Next Gen Search Bot (38 million per day), or through email plugins (44 million per day).(7) These email plugins take email signatures including their name, title, company, cell phone or direct dial phone numbers, and email addresses. Consumers are advised however, when they take part in the ZoomInfo Community Edition program, they must agree to also share all of their business contacts from their email client's databases.
Anyone using a supported Microsoft Outlook or Google App for Business is eligible to take part in the ZoomInfo Community Edition program and have their address book scraped along with all of their inbound and outbound email communications. Now that they have access inside your email, and with the value of data, how long before a couple words are changed in their privacy policy and they start selling everything. (4)
In addition to ZoomInfo, Cassidy's warning is timely in lieu of the media frenzy surrounding Clearview AI--a company under cease and desist orders for scraping 3 billion photos from social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. (1) Without the permission of their users, Clearview AI used software technology to amass pictures and other data online for the purpose of helping law enforcement to identify both criminal suspects and their victims. (2) Currently, Clearview AI is facing legal threats from both private and government entities. Twitter has also taken a hard stance on this matter, stating "This type of use (scraping Twitter for people's images/likeness) is not allowed," according to BuzzFeed News.
Clearview's data gathering practice brings up a valid debate--how far is too far when collecting data for marketing purposes?
How MountainTop Data Operates
Experts state that, 93%" of the most successful B2B marketers today practice email marketing" with no end to its momentum, as email users are expected to grow beyond 3 billion people by 2020.(6) Yet, if companies do not have accurate lists, they are throwing money away, losing leads, and contributing to damaging email practices. MountainTop Data wants to save companies money and increase their profits with lawful and accurate email lists.
Cassidy's business model also relies on coaching businesses to learn the right way to execute B2B marketing. A lot of times, "they miss the mark. They don't have enough data on the person they are marketing to, so they send out cliché emails and do hackneyed marketing that costs a lot of money but speaks to no one." MountainTop Data's team helps businesses pinpoint the correct audience so that they don't get it "wrong." MountainTop Data with their accurate lists will continue to make sure the right message arrives to that audience in an ethical way.
Free Data is a Double-Edged Sword
Today, the backbone of sales and marketing at many organizations is direct contact data. They are desperate for data. Data Brokers are fully aware of this and as a result, some B2B data brokers offer individuals access to their business database and in exchange, the broker is allowed to extract content and signatures from the user's email account boundlessly. The data broker extracting this data from the organization's account then makes that same data available, sells it, to other businesses. However, because of California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), consumers now have right to access and delete their private information. (3) More US states are predicted to embed this legal policy in the future.
This will not be the first-time data broker methods have been called into question. In 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), released a paper on data brokers, and at an FTC conference, Senior Legal Advisor Janis Kestenbaum, telling attendees the data broker industry is not operating with enough transparency. He also voiced that data changes hands amongst brokers often and these data brokers source from a variety of platforms, including social media, subscription lists, and governmental public records. (5)
About MountainTop Data:
MountainTop Data, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, has been providing data services for B2B marketing for almost two decades. With an unrelenting commitment to quality they were the first company to guarantee the accuracy of their licensed data and business emails. They provide marketing lists, data cleaning, data appending, data maintenance and email campaign management services. Their data services have been used by some of the world's biggest brands across a multitude of various industries from multi-national telecommunication companies to office technology, to PR firms and more. For more information visit: https://www.mountaintopdata.com
1. O'Flaherty, Kate. "Clearview AI's Database Has Amassed 3 Billion Photos. This Is How If You Want Yours Deleted, You Have to Opt Out." Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 26 Jan. 2020, forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2020/01/26/clearview-ais-database-has-amassed-3-billion-photos-this-is-how-if-you-want-yours-deleted-you-have-to-opt-out/.
2. Reichert, Corinne. "Clearview AI Facial Recognition Company Faces Another Lawsuit." CNET, CNET, 14 Feb. 2020, cnet.com/news/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-company-faces-another-lawsuit/.
3. Rapp, Lisa, et al. "What Is CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) and What Does It Mean to Marketers?" RampUp, 3 Oct. 2019, rampedup.us/what-is-ccpa-california-consumer-privacy-act/.
4. Carr, David F. "ZoomInfo Plug-In Siphons Contacts From Outlook." InformationWeek, Information Week, 1 Apr. 2011, informationweek.com/zoominfo-plug-in-siphons-contacts-from-outlook/d/d-id/1096969.
5. Carson, Angelique. "Data Brokers Demystified: A Call for Ethics." Data Brokers Demystified: A Call for Ethics, International Association of Privacy Professionals, 10 June 2015, iapp.org/news/a/data-brokers-demystified-a-call-for-ethics/.
6. Boachie, Pius. "4 Expert Predictions for Demand Generation in 2019." ClickZ, 22 Oct. 2019, clickz.com/expert-predictions-demand-generation-2019/221162-2/221162/.
7. "Information without Innovation Is Just Data." ZoomInfo, zoominfo.com/business/our-data.
SOURCE MountainTop Data
