Sadly, I think you're right. And in the end, this may just end up being great marketing for the data their selling. Reminds me a startup that I used to work fo

Sadly, I think you're right. And in the end, this may just end up being great marketing for the data their selling. Reminds me a startup that I used to work for a while back. We had hired a new hot-shot marketing VP. First thing he does is to purchase 'qualified leads' from some dubious data broker and trumpet how he had generated more leads in his first week than the company had over it's existence. Then the new hot-shot VP of sales hires a couple of inside-sales guys to call through this massive list with a script (which they probably bought from somewhere too since I don't recall recognizing our product from it) provided by new marketing VP. This was a time when people still answered when someone called from unknown number. I remember chatting with the poor inside-sales guys who had to do the calling, and oh boy were they frustrated, but that was nothing compared to how badly the calling was received by people who got the calls. I am pretty sure company got exactly zero sales out of that exercise and probably killed a few future deals too. But I am sure at least marketing VP met his KPIs. Moral of the story: there are shady people out there that are more than happy to pay for all kinds of data sets. I believe that as a society we should exert more control over our data, and companies selling it should be scrutinized, regulated and taxed for doing so.