A forgotten footnote to history: Adolf Hitler used Big Data to round up Jews and others he labeled enemies and "untermenschen."
The Nazis didn't have computers in the 1930s. They used punch-card sorting machines that were manufactured by a German subsidiary of IBM. IBM -0.46 % One of these contraptions is on display at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
It remains a footnote because it's easier not to think about it. It's easier to believe America's largest corporations have good intentions. It's easier to believe nothing so nefarious will ever happen again in a civilized society.
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission published a detailed report on all the information that private data brokers have collected on you.
The nine companies that the agency studied— Acxiom, ACXM 0.00 % CoreLogic, CLGX 0.07 % Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, PeekYou, Rapleaf and Recorded Future—apparently know just about everything.
If you've made a purchase in a Judaica shop, they know that. If you celebrate Kwanzaa, they know that. If you are a white, middle-class gun owner, they know that too.
They've got your phone number, your driver's-license number and your Social Security number.
They know how you voted. They know where you live, and what you spend on rent or mortgage payments. They know what kind of car you drive, and when you're likely to replace it. They know if you're a gambler or a smoker, or if you're obese. They know what kind of diseases you have.
The data allow them to label people for marketing purposes, but it's easy to see how data could be used for other purposes. Labels for types of people that are noted in the FTC's report include: "Financially Challenged," "Underbanked," "Thrifty Elders" and "Working-Class Moms." And then there's "Biker/Hell's Angels," "Bible Lifestyle," "Leans Left" and "Political Conservative."
The labels "Urban Scramble" and "Mobile Mixer" often apply to low-income Latinos and African-Americans. "Rural Everlasting" often gets put on single men and women over age 66 with "low educational attainment and low net worths."
"Data brokers often know as much—or even more—about us than our family and friends," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez in releasing the report.
Data brokers get this information legally from public records, social-networking accounts and even forms that consumers fill out for contests and product warranties. They package it, manipulate it, analyze it and sell it.
The FTC is calling on Congress to demand transparency and accountability from this industry, but it can't even keep up with hackers stealing credit-card numbers.
Besides, lawmakers and the White House are too busy bashing Edward Snowden. Last week Secretary of State John Kerry called the former CIA operative a traitor for putting intelligence officials at risk with his leaks. But so far it looks like the White House has inadvertently outed more spies than Mr. Snowden has.
In an interview with NBC, Mr. Snowden warned that government spooks can remotely control your cellphone, even when it's off, and see through its camera, listen through its microphone and scroll through its data.
People have to trust that the information our government and private companies collect will always be used fairly. That it will never be used to discriminate. That some future regime will never use it to round up its enemies.
History teaches that such trust is naive.