When a data scientist started getting a lot of unwelcome phone calls, she decided to find out why and how.
Her investigation took her deep into the little-known world of “data brokers”, where personal data is legally sold for profit, and our current privacy laws do little to stop them.
ANU Data Scientist, lecturer and academic Priya Dev has always gone to great lengths to protect her personal information from landing in the wrong hands.
“They’re dark companies that go unnoticed and they’re just trading our personal information,” she said.
But not even a data science academic could hide from the hidden network of data broking.
“It’s a dirty word. It’s dirty business,” she said.
“It’s worth tens of billions of dollars all around the world.”
Despite being on the national ‘do not …