Yes, companies are harvesting – and selling – your Facebook profile

Our take: Information posted on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even Blogspot could be data that companies collect for other organizations. The information is used to understand how to reach out to their customers better. Lois Beckett of ProPublica, reports about the companies releasing personal information unbeknownst to social media users:

"Yesterday, we got a rare look at how information on your public social media profilesincluding Twitter, Facebook and LinkedInis being harvested and resold by large consumer data companies.

Responding to a congressional query, nine data companies provided answers to a detailed set of questions about what kinds of information they collect about individual Americans, and where they get that data."

Read more about Companies harvesting your Facebook profile on ProPublica.