IS THERE A JUNK MAIL DATA BROKER MONOPOLY IN THE MAKING?

InfoUSA, headquartered in Omaha, NE, has been on the acquisition trail for the last several years. Why do you care? If for no other reason, amassing this much sensitive data under one, separate corporate control means that security must be even more stringent than normal. Not saying it isn’t, but time will tell. MultichannelMerchant.com says it bluntly in the headline of their 2006 article: “Is InfoUSA Taking over the World?” Those companies acquired include seven major list companies, each of which deals in millions of your names and private information every day. They also now own Yesmail, an E-mail marketing company, OneSource offering business data, CatalogVision, providing data mining, and American Medical Information who sell medical lists. Several industry competitors say Info USA’s service will suffer; doesn’t security run hand-in-hand with service? The numbers are staggering: 220 million consumers; 13 million businesses; 2.6 million bankruptcies; and 11.4 million executives. This one bears watching.