Shadow Scores: Your Hidden Digital Profile and How to Protect It

Understanding Shadow Scores

• 🎯 A hidden digital profile, known as a shadow score, is being built about you, impacting job offers and loan rates.
• 💡 Companies acquire this information from data brokers who collect data from all your online activities.
• ⚠️ Even seemingly innocent actions like returning shoes can lead to being categorized as a "bad customer", potentially resulting in returns being banned.
• 🏠 Your financial and employment history can also be accessed by data brokers to assess your value as a customer.

Data Brokers and Your Digital Footprint

• 🌐 In our connected digital age, every online action, from app usage to loyalty programs, contributes to your data, often in exchange for small discounts.
• 📈 Data brokers boast having thousands of data points per user, covering a significant portion of internet users worldwide.
• 🔄 This data gets repopulated over time, making regular data cleanup a necessity, akin to brushing your teeth.
• 🕵️‍♀️ Attempting to remove your data yourself can be a challenging, whack-a-mole process due to constantly changing opt-out instructions and the sheer number of data brokers.

AI, Data, and Security Risks

• 🤖 Data brokers are crucial for training AI models, as they provide the necessary data beyond publicly scraped internet content.
• 🔒 Protecting yourself involves ensuring your data is not available in datasets being sold.
• 📞 AI-generated scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated and easy to create, making it difficult to protect oneself, especially vulnerable individuals.
• 📱 Scammers use AI to create realistic simulations for investment schemes, using AI bots to mimic human interaction and build trust before defrauding victims.

Protecting Your Data and Identity

• 🛡️ Services like Incogni help remove your information from data brokers, reducing spam calls, texts, and junk mail.
• 🚗 Modern cars track driving behavior (speeding, braking) and this data can be sold to insurance companies, affecting your rates.
• 🩺 Health data, including visits and activities, is digitized and tracked, potentially influencing insurance offers or rejections.
• 🔑 Getting yourself out of data brokers' databases helps regain control and avoid penalties based on algorithmic decisions.
• 🌐 Incogni's process involves adding users to suppression lists and continuously cleaning personal information to ensure they remain off these datasets.