[landemva]

>> as a citizen of the fine and upstanding US of A.

If you work as W-2 in USA, your employer, or their payroll company, may be sending your payroll data including itemized withholdings to theworknumber. Some employers don't even know the payroll provider is doing this nonsense.

>> I don't have a feasible alternative.

Most people have to work.

The Work Number is good for us, says this university.

https://hrs.uni.edu/theworknumber

[vacuity]

That's deeply unfortunate. Still, I rest my case. There's a difference between using PII for the agreed-upon service and sharing/selling it to third parties for a profit. If a free service can't be sustainable by properly using the information, then it should either charge or be abundantly clear about how data is used, allowing for "right to forget" and whatnot. It's not like a service has the right to exist if the matter comes down to consumers. Given that snooping inside peoples' homes is generally unacceptable, I posit that having access to peoples' searches, browsing history, locations, etc. should also be strictly curtailed unless it is necessary. Naturally that falls on the government to enforce.