Users fight back against booming underground trade in personal data

A multi-billion dollar industry of data brokers is quietly collecting and selling the personal information of millions of people, including home addresses, phone numbers, and indicators of political leanings.

The industry, which operates with little transparency, sells this data to technology companies and advertising campaigns. In response, new commercial services have emerged that allow consumers to fight back by demanding the removal of their personal records from hundreds of broker databases.

These services act as proxies for users in the increasingly complex field of digital privacy enforcement. The rise of these platforms signals a growing public awareness of data privacy, fueling a new market for tools designed to protect personal information.

The rapid expansion of automated data-deletion services in Western markets mirrors a decade-long regulatory battle for digital privacy, anchored by frameworks such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This global shift is now reaching Vietnam, where the landscape is set for a significant transformation as the country's Personal Data Protection Law moves toward full implementation by 2025.

The new legislation marks a pivotal milestone in Vietnam’s legal framework, granting citizens formal rights to the rectification and erasure of their personal information for the first time. However, as the regime enters its first full year of oversight in 2026, the focus will shift from legislative intent to the realities of enforcement.

The central challenge lies in whether these regulations can effectively constrain data brokers, multinational tech giants, and entities operating across borders. While the law provides a "right to be forgotten," the administrative burden of manually serves deletion requests to hundreds of disparate data processors remains prohibitive for the average individual.

Given this friction between statutory rights and practical implementation, Vietnam is likely to see the emergence of a domestic market for commercial data protection services. Much like their Western counterparts, these intermediaries will aim to bridge the enforcement gap, offering automated solutions to help citizens navigate an increasingly complex bureaucratic and digital ecosystem.

For Vietnamese Americans, especially those running phở restaurants, nail salons, and other small businesses in Little Saigon, data privacy is a critical concern. When personal and business information is harvested, it often leads to targeted predatory advertising and highly sophisticated scams. To protect your livelihood, it is essential to stay informed about your rights under state privacy laws and to utilize modern digital security tools.