Every year during National Consumer Protection Week, you hear warnings about phishing emails, fake IRS calls and identity theft. Those threats are real, but there is another risk that gets far less attention, and it is completely legal.

Right now, hundreds of companies collect, package and sell personal information, including your home address, phone number, family members, income estimates and even your daily habits. They are not targeting you because you did anything wrong. Instead, they profit simply because your data is valuable.

Unlike traditional scams, this does not happen in the shadows. It happens out in the open, every single day. As a result, most people only realize it is happening after someone uses their personal information against them.

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Your personal information is a product

Data brokers are companies most people have never heard of, but they know a surprising amount about you. They collect information from public records, online activity, retail purchases, app usage and hundreds of other sources.

Then they build detailed profiles and sell them to advertisers, marketers and anyone else willing to pay. A typical profile may include:

• Full names, ages and phone numbers
• Home addresses
• Names of relatives and household members
• Estimated income, home value and net worth
• Shopping habits and interests
• Political, health and lifestyle indicators

This information often appears on people-search sites, where anyone can look you up in seconds. Scammers use these same databases to find and target victims. But even legitimate companies use them in ways most consumers never knowingly agreed to.

People-search sites expose more data than you realize

Search your own name online, and you may find pages listing your address, relatives’ names and contact details. These sites present themselves as “background check tools” or “public records directories.” But their business model depends on making personal information easy to find.

• That creates real-world risks. Criminals use these sites to:
• Impersonate banks, government agencies, or delivery services
• Convince victims they already “know” them
• Locate elderly or vulnerable individuals
• Target family members using shared address history.

Even strangers can learn where you live, who your relatives are and how to contact you. No hacking required.

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Your browsing history is being tracked and sold

Many websites and apps track what you click, read and buy. Incogni’s research found that popular apps like TikTok, Alibaba, Temu and Shein collect numerous personally identifiable data points and share them with third parties, like advertising networks and data brokers.

Even web extensions track what you do online. Popular Chrome extensions like the AI-powered Grammarly or Quillbotinvade your privacy, require extensive permissions and collect sensitive data.

Over time, this data collection builds a behavioral profile. It can reveal:

• Financial stress or debt concerns
• Health interests or medical conditions
• Major life events like moving, retirement, or the loss of a spouse
• Online purchases and brand preferences.

This is why you may suddenly receive highly specific emails, calls, or ads that feel uncomfortably personal. Someone already knew what to say.

AI is accelerating data collection

AI makes personal data more valuable and easier to collect than ever before. These systems scrape public websites, social media profiles, images and videos to pull identifying details. They also connect scattered pieces of information into a single, detailed identity profile, which can include:

• Photos connected to your name
• Voice recordings from public videos
• Employment history
• Locations you’ve lived at or visited.

Once collected, this information can circulate indefinitely. You can delete a social media post, but copies of that data may already exist elsewhere.

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Most AI companies collect data by default, unless you opt out

Are you using ChatGPT, Gemini, or even LinkedIn? Then your data is automatically collected from your chatbot conversations, posts, and more. They collect user interactions like prompts, voice recordings, uploaded photos and behavioral data to improve the AI system.

In some cases, you have to manually disable this in settings, but it’s buried in countless opt-out guides or obscure labels. For example, to opt out of LinkedIn data collection, you need to:

• Go to Settings and find the Privacy tab.
• Find the toggle named ‘Data for Generative AI Improvement.’ 
• Review other default data sharing options.
• Disable everything from personal demographic information to social, economic and workplace research.

AI-powered apps and services continuously switch it up and make it harder for you to opt out. Why? Your data is fueling their business model. The more data points they have, the better they can train their AI and the more money they make.

Why this matters for your safety, not just your privacy

Most people think data collection is just about targeted ads. But the same information can be used to make scams far more convincing. Instead of sending generic phishing emails, scammers can reference your real address or recent activities.

For example: “Hi, Mr. Smith, this is your bank. We noticed unusual activity on your bank account, ending in 0123. Please confirm your information.”

Because the details are accurate, the message feels legitimate. This dramatically increases the chances someone will respond. In many cases, the information came from data broker databases that were legally purchased or accessed.

Consumer protection starts with reducing your digital footprint

National Consumer Protection Week is meant to empower people to protect themselves. That protection shouldn’t stop at obvious scams. It should include limiting how easily your personal information can be found in the first place.

A data removal service helps remove your personal data from data brokers and people-search sites that collect and sell it. Instead of submitting dozens or hundreds of manual requests yourself, they automate the process and continue removing your data as it reappears.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.

Kurt’s key takeaways

When most people think about scams, they imagine criminals hiding in the shadows. But some of the biggest threats to your personal information are operating out in the open. Data brokers legally collect and sell detailed profiles about you. People-search sites make your address, phone number and even relatives easy to find in seconds. Your browsing activity is tracked, packaged and monetized. And now AI is speeding up how quickly that information can be gathered, connected and reused. This is not just about annoying ads. The more accessible your personal data is, the easier it becomes for scammers to sound convincing and target you with precision. Real consumer protection is not only about avoiding suspicious links. It is about limiting where your information lives and who can access it. The less strangers know about you, the harder it is to use your own data against you.

Have you ever searched for your name online and been surprised by what you found? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Related Article

My first thought when Apple announced the MacBook Neo today was “okay, but why not just get an older Air?” If you’re thinking that too, you might be right. If you can find one.

The Neo starts at $599 with an A18 Pro processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB storage, and ends at $699 with the same specs plus TouchID and 512GB of storage. It has two USB-C (not Thunderbolt) ports, a pretty basic-looking screen, a mechanical trackpad instead of haptic, and various other cost-saving measures. It’s the cheapest new MacBook you can get now.

The new M5 MacBook Air starts at $1,099 with 16GB of memory and 512GB of much faster storage, a bigger and brighter screen, a better webcam, better Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, more speakers, Thunderbolt 4, a faster charger, and so forth. It’s $100 more than last year’s model, probably because of the Neo. Or you can get an M4 MacBook Air for $1000, with a slightly slower processor than the M5 (but still faster than the Air), and otherwise pretty much the same specs.

If you could still get a new M1 Air from Walmart for $700, it’d be a pretty tough call between that and the Neo. That machine came out in 2020, but is still better in most respects. Unfortunately, they’ve been out of stock since last month — probably because of the Neo — so that’s the end of that. You can probably find a refurb one. Same with the M3 and M4: if you can find one for around the same price as the Neo, especially with 16GB of RAM, you should get one of those. But they’re pretty thin on the ground, and I’d expect them to become thinner. (Keep an eye on Apple’s refurb site, though — a refurb M4 Air for $750 is pretty dang good.)

The modern Air is unquestionably a better computer. The thing about $1,000 is it’s a lot more money than $600. $600 is already more than most non-Mac people want to spend on a laptop, but it’s a lot less than an Air, and the gap between the two is big enough that it’s harder to justify the jump unless you know you’re gonna need more than 8GB of RAM, if you’re ever gonna use Thunderbolt, and so forth. I wouldn’t buy the Neo for myself.

The Neo isn’t meant to compete with the Air, though. It’s aiming for the first-time MacBook buyer. It’s Apple trying to pick up the cheap Windows laptop crowd who are annoyed by Windows. With its $499 price for education, it’s also an attempt to break the Chromebook’s stranglehold on the K-12 market, to turn iPad kids into MacBook Neo teens into Air adults. Heck, when it’s time for my kids to turn in their school-issued Chromebooks, and I have to choose between a Chromebook, a Windows laptop, and a MacBook Neo for them? That’ll be interesting.

And that’s how they get you!

I honestly don’t think the Neo vs Air debate is going to be that hard for most people, just because most people aren’t spending a thousand bucks on a laptop in the first place. The processor’s probably going to feel about the same as an M1 Air’s, which is to say fast enough for most things. The toughest parts are going to be figuring out if you’re satisfied with 8GB of RAM (rough!), if you ever really need Thunderbolt (maybe not?), and if you care about that fancy webcam (eh). If you already know the answer, you already know the answer. And you should probably grab that refurb Air while you can.

A cynical part of me thinks this is Apple trying to get MacBooks onto the same upgrade cycle as its phones. If you bought the cheapest MacBook Air six years ago, it’s probably still fine. If you buy the cheapest MacBook Neo today, is it going to feel fine in six years? Maybe! Or maybe you’ll decide you need to spring for an Air next time. And up the funnel you go.