The Federal Trade Commission is calling for legislation that would give citizens access to the information that commercial data brokers store about them.

The proposal is an unusually tough one from an agency that prefers to coax companies into adopting voluntary principles. A month ago, Obama administration officials outlined a proposed “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” and urged technology companies, consumer groups and others to jointly craft new protections.

In a privacy report released this week, the FTC is urging the adopting of a law that would let consumers access and dispute personal data held by information brokers.

The report comes as the business of background checks is booming. An investigation by The Associated Press last year found that data brokers often store incorrect or outdated information, including criminal records.

It looks like I’m not the only one who thinks it’s absurd a citizen has to pay to find out how the corporations rank them, and why.  As I’ve said before, we have full access to this info and should get a cut any time our information is sold, either personally or in bulk.
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FTC seeks laws to reveal what data brokers hold
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/03/27/national/a065001D14.DTL