Aggregator Coughs Up Its Cookies

Exacitis, a Florida-based data company that aggregates and sells personal information about individuals, has accidentally leaked its information. The data breach affects 340 million individuals. The population of the U.S. is about 326 million, so its safe to say that data from everyone in this country who uses the internet has been exposed. Exactis gets its information by tracking users cookies, the data sent out by a website when a user visits it. Collecting cookies across different websites creates a picture of an individual’s browsing habits. This type of tracking has gotten more detailed in recent years. Other companies that use cookies to gather information across the web include Epsilon, Acxiom, Palantir, Google GOOG, Amazon AMZN and Facebook. Until the government takes action to hold companies accountable breaches like these will continue, says Carl Wright, chief revenue officer for enterprise security company AttackIQ. Revenue from “Big data” marketing hit $35 billion in 2017. It is projected to triple in the next 10 years. Steven Bearak, CEO of IdentityForce, An identity-security company, suggests that all consumers monitor social media accounts, bank accounts, and credit reports and be on alert for potential takeovers or stolen funds.