Where does your info go? US lawsuit gives peek into shadowy world of data brokers

Data brokers collect our personal data and sell it on - but a new case shows just how easily people's security can be breached

There are a number of ways your personal data could end up in the hands of entities you've never directly given it to. One of them is through the data-broker industry: a complex network of companies that profits off the sale of data such as your location and your purchases, as well as biographical and demographic information.

Now, a new lawsuit is giving consumers an unprecedented peek into this opaque world, and illuminating just how easily a data broker can lose control of the user information it collects.