Where does the data advertisers have about us exist and can we get access to it? I’ve heard that each of us has an advertiser ID that tags each of us as soon as we join a new platform. It knows where we went to middle school, our teachers names and even our personality. I have it on good authority that even Chegg has access to your footprint across the internet. I would love to get access to all of this as I could see it being a more complete psychological profile than MBTIs or BigFive personality tests
In theory, if crafted well enough, you could use it to help visualize in a flowchart timeline:
• Your life story and common patterns between different chapters of life
• How you like to work, what your preferences are in people, content or relationships
• What others with similar life trajectories have done at your stage of life
Where does this data exist, could I ever hope to get access to it in a useable form (or buy it from advertisers)?
I believe it should be abstracted but they must hold some form of a common ID (email etc) in order to facilitate the “enrichment”. Maybe it’s done in a public key/private key way. I don’t actually know.
In terms of getting access I think you’d need to become a partner/customer of something like Acxiom.
If you just want your personal data then you can get it (certainly in Europe or for companies based there) by doing a “subject access request” but I think you might have to originate those with organisation you’ve shared data with.
For the UK (and Europe?) look into “Data Controller” vs “Data Processor”. Third parties running services tend to be “processors” who have responsibilities, but it’s the data controller (normally the first party thing you’ve used directly and given your data to directly) who are ultimately responsible for ensuring it’s handled compliantly and getting you access. Eg: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/controllers-and-processors/controllers-and-processors/what-are-controllers-and-processors/