NBC News (2/13, Collier) reports “sensitive mental health data is for sale by little-known data brokers, at times for a few hundred dollars and with little effort to hide personal information such as names and addresses, according to research” conducted at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. The research “consisted of asking 37 data brokers for bulk data on people’s mental health.” Eleven data brokers “agreed to sell information that identified people by issues, including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, and often sorted them by demographic information such as age, race, credit score and location.” The researchers did not purchase “the data, but in many cases received free samples to prove that the broker was legitimate.”
Related Links:
— “A researcher tried to buy mental health data. It was surprisingly easy ” Kevin Collier, NBC News, February 13, 2023