Your concern is totally valid, I luckily do not live in a country that I feel I need to be on guard at the level you do but it still doesn't mean I appreciate a

Your concern is totally valid, I luckily do not live in a country that I feel I need to be on guard at the level you do but it still doesn't mean I appreciate all the data collection either. That said, there are things people can do with companies like Acxiom to help reduce the data collection. At least in the US (not sure overseas) if you as a consumer submit a request to be removed from their lists they must honor your request and remove you, many US states have strict laws about this and I believe the Federal laws also have strict restrictions. The catch 22 to this is that you can wind up back in the collection at a later date because of activity you take or because of a timeout period (from what I understand). You can read about Acxiom's policy and opt-out here: https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx As a point too, you may check out the data collection from Acxiom, as I believe they actively collect and use data in your home country, as they do in many counties. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion all also work in the US and overseas and collect/sell vast amounts of data on individuals. The very fact they collect so much data does make people (including me) nervous because I personally feel they do not take security of the data nearly serious enough, as recent security issues have shown at most of them. But that I guess is a different issue/post.