Our Take on the Data Broker Accountability and Transparency Act of 2017

In response to the recent data breach of 143 million users’ private information on the credit reporting agency Equifax, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass,), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) proposed a bill that would give consumers the right to prevent their information from being sold by data brokers, as well as require data brokers to disclose and destroy consumers’ private information.

This is not the first time that congress has attempted to pass data privacy acts in the recent past; Senator John D. Rockefeller (D-W.V.) proposed a similar bill in 2014, Senator Markey attempted one in 2015, and most recently, Representative Henry “Hank” Johnson Jr. (D-G.A.) issued a similar bill in 2016. All 3 laws were eventually killed in one house or the other, but now lawmakers are leveraging the aforementioned data hack as a lighting rod to push through this year’s edition. As a service provider and partner to many “traditional” data brokerages, as well as a company that brokers information deals, Deviation Standard is obviously in the thick of this. We would like to clarify our stance on the proposed legislation and what it means to the industry.

We at Deviation Standard, first and foremost, believe in an open and transparent information marketplace, where consumers can opt in or out as they so please. We believe that this openness creates a better market, and allows choice for the end user. While it may seem that by opting out of data collection would not be in our best interest, agreeing for data protection is a fundamental belief of not only this company but the United States of America. We at Deviation Standard strive to work with only reputable, transparent data providers & aggregators, those that honor consumers’ choices. Opting out might reduce the number of users that are able to be marketed intelligently, but creates a more powerful and fair marketplace for advertisers looking to provide consumers with the best product at the best price. Additionally, while anonymized user data is a key tenant to our business, we work with many different kinds of data, reports, and analyses, all delivered at different levels of granularity.

Finally, by agreeing to and promoting a more open data environment, it allows for creativity and uniqueness of our data partners, which further enhances the products and services we can offer our customers. Customers can feel assured that the information procured was done so with the end-consumers’ consensus, which should increase the likelihood of engagement and eventually, conversion. Please check out our partners page for more information or feel free to contact us to speak directly.