this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Privacy

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I have a question, what do companies do with your phone number ? can they trace who you are and what you do ?

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[–] sirlington@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Many companies sell your data to data brokers, and a phone number can act as a unique identifier across several data sources, allowing brokers to merge several data profiles together into a mega-profile about you.

[–] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wouldn't it be funny if the law were to order them to periodically send people a copy of all that data?

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In many places companies are already required to do so on request. Which is why data brokers regularly change their names. If you don’t know who they are, you can’t request your data or ask to have it purged.

[–] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Exactly, on request. But what if we forced them to do so automatically, without it having to be requested?

They'd come up with the most wild and hilarious excuses, wouldn't they