Can a company share my personal information?
A company can share your personal information if allowed by privacy laws, their privacy policy, or with your consent. Laws like GDPR in the EU and CCPA in California limit data sharing without clear consent or a valid reason, such as fulfilling a service. Always review a company’s privacy policy to understand how your information might be used or shared.
Sharing private information without consent
Sharing private information without consent is generally prohibited by law in many regions, such as under the GDPR in the EU or the CCPA in California. Exceptions may include legal obligations (e.g., court orders) or legitimate interests like preventing fraud. Unauthorized sharing can lead to legal consequences for the company, including fines or lawsuits. Always review privacy policies and know your rights regarding data protection.
On August 14, 2015, Lisa Weintraub Schifferle, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Consumer and Business Education posted an open invitation on the FTC website:
Want privacy? Tell the FTC!
Did a company share your personal information without your knowledge or consent? The FTC wants to know. And we’ve made it easier for you to report privacy-related complaints.
Just go to the FTC’s Complaint Assistant and select the option that applies best to your situation.
What should you report? Your family reading your diary? No. Identity theft or data breaches? Go to identitytheft.gov instead. A company collecting or sharing your information without asking? That’s what we’re talking about. Here are examples of privacy complaints you might make:
- Your location or age shows up where you didn’t expect it. You share your resume online with what you think is a small group, and then find it elsewhere – complete with your age, which you didn’t want strangers to know. Or you post a photo, and then your location appears publicly. Now, everyone knows exactly where you are.
- A company knows more about you than you expected. You start getting ads for maternity clothes when you haven’t signed up for them. Maybe another company shared some pretty key information about you. If you thought that information was private and can identify the company that shared it, let us know.
- Your friends are getting invitations from you – that you didn’t send. An online group you joined starts sending invitations to your friends. But you didn’t give permission for them to be contacted. Maybe a company is accessing your contact list without permission.
Tell the FTC whenever your information is shared – and you didn’t want it to be. Also, consider these tips:
- Read the company’s privacy policy. If it says they share personal information with others – and you don’t want that – then don’t do business with them.
- On social network sites, check your privacy settings. It’s safest to allow only friends to view your information, not friends of friends or the public.
- On your mobile phone, turn off geo-location services until needed. Otherwise, apps may use your location information when you don’t realize it.
The FTC’s website has more information on sharing information without consent and consumer privacy.
Read Act-On’s Privacy Policy.