Are people still for sale?

You are their product. They sell you. How does that feel? Did you mean to be for sale? Or are they doing something you don’t like? Did you authorize it? In some cases yes. When you shop and accept terms and conditions or opt in to mailing lists you are saying “sell me”. 

You know about HIPAA. You know your SSN is valuable. There are laws protecting both. Even with the law there are bad guys selling it. But it’s harder. 

Here is what is not protected: read pieces of you being sold. 

•  Basic identifiers — Full name, current/past addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, aliases, date of birth.

•  Demographics — Age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, education level, occupation, household composition (e.g., children, single parent), income estimates, net worth.

•  Financial — Credit scores/history, payment behavior, assets/debts, inferred wealth.

•  Behavioral/Purchase — Shopping habits, what you’ve bought online/offline, brands/loyalty programs, search history, clicked ads.

•  Online/Location — Browsing history, websites visited, app usage, precise geolocation (sometimes real-time or frequent locations), social media activity.

•  Health/Inferred Sensitive — Medications, conditions (e.g., inferred from purchases like OTC drugs or app data), mental health indicators, interests in fitness/weight loss.

•  Other — Political preferences, hobbies, religious inferences, vehicle ownership, real estate details, even sensitive segments like “interested in certain causes” or life events (e.g., new parents).

If that makes you go “wow!” Ask this? Should the law of the land protect me from people selling me? We need personal data protection. I will focus on that if elected. 

If you are sick of spam texts and calls let’s ask Congress to help. Vote independent. Vote for someone who wants to help South Carolinians. Vote against lifetime politicians and party money. Show the country that money can’t buy elections. Or you.