Experian Offering Free Dark Web Email Scan Complete With Targeted Ads

Experian is running ads saying “Email addresses are being sold on the Dark Web. Scan and see if yours is one of them.” Considering Equifax was Hacked recently the offer sounds promising. But Experian’s FREE email scan and report has Targeted Advertising stipulation consumers should be aware of. 🙁

However after clicking the ad link prospective consumers are presented with Experian’s terms of service.

Did you notice and read Experian’s Ad Targeting Policy Link above? Unfortunately there is no such thing as FREE. There’s always a catch to free offers.. 😆

Effective Date: December 28, 2015

This Ad Targeting Policy supplements the Privacy Policy by describing how we use and share data for online targeted marketing purposes.

ConsumerInfo.com, Inc., an Experian® Company (“CIC”), which operates websites such as FreeCreditReport.com, ProtectMyId.com, and other websites we may add from time to time, may share information about you and other customers collectively, but not specifically identifiable to you with our parent company, our affiliated companies, and with third parties. This information includes:

Demographic information (gender, estimated age, and general geographic location, and your estimated purchase ability);
Summarized census information and other publicly available information (estimated education level, homeownership status, and estimated occupation type); and
Your inferred and expressed interests, including transactional information and product interests we derive from your visits to certain websites we operate.
This information that we share includes information that we have collected, together with data from Experian Marketing Services, one of the members of the Experian family of companies.

The recipients of this information use it to develop and deliver targeted advertising on our family of websites and on the websites of third parties. The information is used only for marketing purposes. It is not used to make targeted offers that are priced differently based on estimated purchase ability.

The targeted advertising resulting from this information sharing is related to common product and service categories, such as travel and leisure, automotive, retail, financial services, electronics, pharmaceutical and consumer products, publication subscriptions and similar categories that you see advertised routinely. These advertisements are not based on data relating to adult content, individual or aggregate health information or records, precise geographic location, information derived from your individual credit report (with the exception of Credit Based Offers that you authorize us to present to you as specified in the applicable Terms and Conditions agreed to on certain CIC websites), or information relating to your financial accounts. We use cookies to facilitate the sharing of this information while you are online. Information in these cookies is updated from time to time to ensure that it is up to date and relevant. In order to appropriately safeguard the information in them, as described above, these cookies are encrypted. At this time we do not respond to “do not track” browser signals.

If you prefer that we do not share this information, and would not like to receive targeted advertising as described above, please see our Opt Out page. Note that if you opt out, you will still receive advertising. Also, if you opt out and later delete your cookies, use a different browser, or buy a new computer, you will need to renew your opt out choice. If you would like to stop receiving Credit Based Offers as part of your enrollment in certain CIC products and services, please call Customer Care at 1-866-617-1894

If you’ve never heard about the dark web here is an article from Vice.com that lays it out well. Two groups of people make money from the so-called dark web: Criminals who use it to peddle illegal goods, and the companies who offer to track them on behalf of law enforcement and private clients.

Both are now established trades, with the latter growing at an accelerating rate. A handful of dark web monitoring companies exist, some being created specifically to tackle the dark web, and others expanding their services to tackle sites on the Tor network . Last month, one such company, Terbium Labs, scooped $6.3 million, and in January iSight Partners was acquired for $200 million.

Personally speaking. There are hoards of nosy bots that scan and scrape the web looking for consumers personal information. Facebook is the king of ad serve platforms on the web. Always beware of your privacy when clicking links on the net.

Just my two cents worth as usual.. 😎

FidoSysop

I'm a former Auto Dealer and Mechanic born in the 50s. In 1991 Doc's Place Bulletin Board System was born on the Fidonet Network. Since the net went public I've been studying and mastering it becoming a tech-savvy hobbyist webmaster. I.blog my opinion about many worthy subjects and maintain a large conservative archive!