[lazyasciiart]

Ok, so nobody here knows directly of any case where such data has been purchased, or vaguely similar, and we have no pricing information whatsoever available, but we are somehow completely knowledgeable about it being possible and how to do it? That sounds unlikely.

[andrew_lettuce]

The supposedly in-the-know responses here are full of bravado but not much other than "trust me, bro"

[JohnMakin]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44565878

Yea, you know everything, don't you.

[some_random]

Wow the Transunion business site, that really proves it huh.

[dylan604]

Experian is known to sell the data they have. Why is this even in question? If I provide you Experian's website, you would give the same BS response?

Let me google this for you...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+buy+data+from+a+data+broker...

[some_random]

The conversation was for buying transaction data from specific people, something that many seem to insist is easy and cheap and doable. Meanwhile if you actually read the responses to that search you smugly cited you'll find that no one seems to know how to actually do anything remotely like this. Yes this data is definitely harvested and it seems like you should be able to buy it in bulk from someone somewhere, but again no one seems to know where or how much or what the purchase minimum would be etc.

[JohnMakin]

You asked for an example, one was given. if you’re saying you dont know how to send an email to a business page with the products purporting services described here - no comment in this section can help you

[leoqa]

Yeah people fail to provide examples but continue to be doomers about how easy it is.

[dylan604]

Been busy, but since you seem to be unable to find any body by searching on your own for the past 6 hours, here's something I found with a quick little search.

https://datarade.ai/data-categories/food-grocery-transaction...

Have we really lost the ability to use search functionality??

[JohnMakin]

Of course people do. 5 seconds spent doing the most sparse-ass research will help you find plenty of stuff. If people don't respond, I imagine, for fear of 1) outing the specific area they work in, or 2) realizing these kinds of comments aren't generally acting in good faith so it is generally a complete waste of time.

I'll waste my own time and give a trivial example just off the top of my head. Go peruse some of the products offered on this page, put on your thinking cap or even look into them further and imagine what kind of data those services provide, where it likely comes from, and where it is sold to, and you'll be well on your way - and those are just the ones that are advertised openly.

https://www.transunion.com/business

Pretty much every one of the big players people typically associate with other areas such as personal credit have some feet in this space somewhere. Then theres the hundreds of lesser-known fly-by-night guys that have their own DB's they build off of mostly what is the same data, but correlated in different ways and sold to different audiences.

There are many, many services offering data-for-sale on practically anything to practically anyone. I heard of one recently claiming it can reliably determine someone's porn preferences. The fact you personally have never come across it, or are saying you aren't, is only a data point that is interesting to you, and no one else that actually knows what they are talking about in this space. Hope this post helps you somehow.

[lazyasciiart]

I didn’t ask for a link to a company that can do it. I want pricing. I am saying that nobody here is willing to share anything even approaching specific pricing, which makes me very much doubt that any of them have the direct transaction experience they are claiming. I don’t doubt that underwater welding exists, but I do doubt that anyone in this thread has done it, or has any direct experience with it.

[southernplaces7]

>There are many, many services offering data-for-sale on practically anything to practically anyone. I heard of one recently claiming it can reliably determine someone's porn preferences.

Okay but then why not name at least a couple such services. Also, if the tech industry isn't selling data to them, where do they obtain it? Again, I see lots of ambiguity here, and the example link from transunion is hardly revealing of anything.

[dylan604]

Credit card companies are known to sell data. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mastercard-credit-card-customer...

Mobile service providers are known to have sold data. https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-fines-largest-wireless-carr...

Auto makers are known to sell data. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a61711288/automakers-sold-...

You act like it doesn't happen, yet time and time again we learn about companies selling whatever data they can collect.

I can't believe we are still questioning this fact

What else do you need to know?

[southernplaces7]

I think you misunderstand. I'm not doubting that it happens widely and pervasively. It's evident that this is the case. I just requested examples based on some of the very specific claims made here despite many ambiguities in how they were phrased.

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to include some links.

[dylan604]

For the most part, readers here are against it. Just because someone doesn’t know how to do it does not mean it is not doable. If it were not doable, these companies would not exist. I’ve already spent more time than I care on the topic. So if you want to think that people are collecting the data and not selling it to interested parties, the, boy, I don’t know. You can only lead hostess to water, but you can’t make it drink.

[southernplaces7]

Hostess? You mean horses no?

>So if you want to think that people are collecting the data and not selling it to interested parties, the, boy, I don’t know.

As I very clearly said above, I don't doubt it at all, I was just asking for any clarification on who to whom.

[JohnMakin]

and you were given them. so why keep taking this persistent obstinate line of questioning and persistent downvoting? it’s transparent and tired. industry experts chime in on this stuff all the time, it isnt anything done in backrooms or anything and is in the open. the only barrier to you not knowing is your own ignorance.

[southernplaces7]

Persistent questioning (usually a good thing for debate by the way. I wasn't asking anything unreasonable), because I was curious and hoping for some answers from anyone willing to provide concrete details for claims that struck me as ambiguous on hard details, even though I don't doubt the widespread existence of personal data selling at all, as I've repeatedly mentioned.. As for downvoting, not sure what you mean. I can only say I've never once downvoted a single comment in any time spent commenting on this site, ever. I think the whole downvote thing is detestable and infantile. I'll even upvote things I disagree with just to counter it if I see them go grey.

[some_random]

Literally all anyone is asking for is one single concrete example of a site where you can roll up and buy personal information.