A small Peninsula tech company is calling for a big federal investigation. It involves your paystub.
Millions of employers share payroll info about millions of workers with data brokers, who then sell access to your information.
Privacy advocates have expressed concern, and so has Certree, a San Mateo-based data privacy company. On Tuesday, Certree sent the Federal Trade Commission a 12-page letter. Certree CEO Pavan Kochar warned the FTC that what’s happening is “anti-competitive” and “anti-consumer.”
LINK: Read the letter
Kochar spoke with NBC Bay Area.
“We believe the FTC really should investigate the practices of these data brokers,” she said. “Because they’re now depriving American consumers of owning and controlling their own personal information.”
The Federal Trade Commission confirmed it received Certree’s letter. The agency did not comment.
HOW-TO VIDEO: See if the brokers have your data (and see who's looked at it)
Data brokers don’t dispute that access to payroll data is for sale and has been for sale for years. They’ve told us they’re selective about who can buy in.
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In response to Ccertree’s letter, data broker Equifax said on Tuesday, “Few companies have invested more time and resources than equifax in the last few years to ensure that consumers’ information is protected.“
Experian, another big data broker, did not respond to us. We also requested comment from the Consumer Data Industry Association. It did not reply.
