Or at least your personal data is. This may include where you live, how much you spent for dinner or even your mobile number. All of it is mined and harvested.
Your data is later sold to businesses which contact you about buying their services. Data mining is big business, with global estimates bordering on billions of dollars, said one New York Times report in February this year.
Locally, data miners have also been enjoying a boom, says one industry observer, Ms Angie Tay from Teledirect.
She recalls a study done about four years ago stating that the data industry here is "worth millions".
Says Ms Tay, a country director: "If you ask database companies for a name, home phone number and address, it would cost between $5 and $10 for each contact. "Add a person's NRIC number (and the) data costs more."
Some data base providers also sell information in bulk.
Residential addresses costs $500 for 20,000 listings depending on whether it's HDB, condominium or landed property.
According to some data mining websites, mobile numbers are costlier at $500 for 2,500 personal numbers.
E-mails go for $1,000 for 10,000 listings. One data miner posted online in January: "I have leads of high net worth clients as well and leads can be tailored to individual targeted audience.
"Guaranteed high contactability rate as it (the database) has been recently updated." The data these websites get can be from a variety of sources, such as lucky draw forms, survey forms and those name cards you drop in a bowl at product launches. In the last few years, people posting personal information on social networking sites have made it easier for data miners.
Says Mr Vincent Tay from Balanced Consultancy: "Most people ask for it when they display personal information openly on social media.
"There are also some apps that monitor everything you do online and collect data from you without you realising it.
"These companies protect themselves legally by putting a disclaimer which most people don't read or understand." On some websites, companies even openly declare that they will share your details with their partners. But could a person get sensitive data if he wanted to?
Information on a person's banking or salary details would be hard to come by, says Mr Tay.
He adds: "But it would not be impossible if you have some friends in the industry. It's illegal and people normally do not dare collect sensitive material because you can always trace who has been accessing the data."
And more protection is on the way. The Personal Data Protection Act kicks in on Jan 2.
The Act seeks to prevent the misuse of personal information - on how businesses collect, use, protect and provide access to personal data.
Adds Ms Tay, who is also the vice chairman of Contact Centre Association of Singapore: "People (contact centre members) are getting worried of the $1 million fine (for misuse of personal data).
"We do have some interactions with Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).
And it's not as complicated as what some of our members fear."
Under the new Act, what some database companies have been hawking may be seen as illegal.
Selling personal e-mail addresses can be seen as a breach if no permission had been obtained from you.
Says a spokesman for the Ministry of Communications and Information: "An e-mail address would be considered 'personal data' if an individual can be identified from the address, or from a combination of the e-mail address and other information to which an organisation has or is likely to have access."
Personal data end-users like a marketing executive, who gave his name only as Mr Tan, have already stopped as their e-mail blasts missed their targets.
Says Mr Tan: "They end up in the (e-mail) trash bin. The best business model has always been the point of referral or client recommendation."
Baffled how info is traded
It's about time.
That's the response of people on the receiving end of junk e-mails and calls.
Receiving unsolicited e-mails or telephone calls can be a nuisance, says Mr Ong Kim Hua, a motorcycle distributor.
"Up until 2011, I keep getting SMSes and international phone calls about investment products or credit card memberships.
"I scold them and tell them not to call again. Yet a few days later,somebody from the same company but from a different department calls me." He adds: "One of them even had the cheek to return my call simply to scold me for hanging up."
Mr Ong is baffled about how his personal information is traded around.
He adds: "I don't recall giving away personal details to anybody but they seem to know how much I earn or how to get me on my private line."
Lawyer Satwant Singh, 48, says, it all boils down towhat an individual considers personal.
"A person may even regard his mobile phone number as personal or private data.
"In this modern day, a mobile phone is a person's lifeline and some just don't want any intrusion."
But financial and other sensitive information must be kept confidential, he says.
"I would be shocked if somebody has access to my financial information. "Only those in the financial industry possess such information, which they are bound by law not to disclose."
What others can find out about you - for free or at a price
Free
- Personal information that can be retrieved for free include those from SingTel Yellow Pages, where names, home addresses and home telephone numbers are listed.
- Contact information available on social networking sites. This depends on the individual's privacy settings.
- Marriage details can be accessed on a limited basis for free via the Registry of Marriages. But the seeker needs to use his SingPass.
- LinkedIn is another resource that's free. A person's employment history can be retrieved. The company claims that 175 million professionals use its networking site.
Paying a small fee for information
- Details like who owns a landed property can be obtained through the Singapore Land Authority web portal.
- More detailed information about an individual is available via the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra).
For a fee, you can get an individual's name, NRIC number and home address.
This search, also known as a due diligence search, reveals information on the businesses owned by an individual.
More expensive and extensive search
- Hire a private detective to get an individual's valuable secrets. Prices are in the region of a few thousand dollars, says one private investigator who declined to be named.
Sensitive personal information could be obtained. However, there's no guarantee and it may be illegal.
The same private investigator found this reporter's NRIC number in just four hours, without elaborating on how he found it.
A data security expert who was given the same challenge managed to find only data that's publicly available.
The security expert found no personal data of this reporter.
The Act explained
The Act regulates the collection,use and disclosure of personal data by organisations.
It also aims to prevent the misuse of personal information and will kick in by Jan 2.
An important part of the Act involves these organisations seeking permission from individuals before any data is collected.
The Act was passed in Parliament on Oct 15 this year and gives companies a transition period of 18 months to comply with the new laws.
The Personal Protection Data Act will be implemented in phases to allow businesses time to fine-tune their data management policies and procedures.
However, exceptions may apply.
Business or contact information such as an individual's business address or business e-mail address that is publicly available,maybe collected, used or disclosed without an individual's consent, says a spokesman for the Ministry of Communication sand Information.
A Do Not Call (DNC) registry will be set up in early 2014.
People can then register their phone numbers, preventing businesses from contacting them for commercial purposes.
Firms violating the DNC rules can be fined $10,000 for each offence.
Organisations that break data protection laws can be fined up to $1 million.
- The New Paper
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