If Marketing Data Can Fight Terrorism, How Private Is It?

Recent terrorist attacks across the globe could rekindle discussions about data brokers and their roles in government surveillance. Not surprisingly, Acxiom, one of the best-known of the bunch, has been mentioned in such discussion. A recent article suggests that data available from firms such as Acxiom "is also useful for creating profiles of terror suspects and helping investigators find accomplices." When the FBI worked with Acxiom after the Sept. 11 attacks, the agency searched through information that the company received from both public records and the information the company handles for its clients.

Not mentioned in the article, Acxiom stood to profit as a contractor supplying data services as part of a post-9/11 Department of Homeland Security initiative in which the Transportation Services Administration would provide data on passengers and verify their identification by matching it against consumer information stored by Acxiom. The program was fraught with concerns about consumer privacy from the start. JetBlue and Acxiom came under fire in a class action lawsuit for allegedly committing deceptive trade practices. The program was nixed in 2004 and that lawsuit was dismissed in 2005. Whether or not Acxiom or other data purveyors are actually handing over their data to the US or other governments is not clear, but we can expect journalists and watchdogs to continue spotlighting obvious links between the data they gather for marketers and the information coveted by intelligence agencies.