NEW YORK (CNNMoney) 
 
 Consumer data companies are selling lists of rape victims, seniors with dementia and even those suffering from HIV and AIDS to marketers, underscoring the need for tighter government regulations, a privacy group told Congress Wednesday. 
 
 The World Privacy Forum uncovered these lists, along with several others, while investigating how data brokers collect and sell consumer information. Marketers buy this data so they can target shoppers based on everything from their income to clothing size. 
 
 Other lists the nonprofit found included the home addresses of police officers, a mailing list for domestic violence shelters (which are typically kept secret by law) and a list of people with addictive behaviors towards drug and alcohol. 
 
 The mere existence of these lists highlights the need for increased government regulations, said World Privacy Forum executive director Pam Dixon. 
 
 Related: What your zip code reveals about you 
 
 "This is where I urge Congress to take action," she said Wednesday at a Senate committee hearing. "Highly sensitive data are the frayed and ugly ends of the bell curve of lists, far from the center. This is where lawmakers can work to remove unsafe, unfair and overall just deplorable lists from circulation." 
 
 Currently, data brokers are required by federal law to maintain the privacy of a consumer's data only if it is used for credit, employment, insurance or housing. And while medical privacy laws prohibit doctors from sharing patient information, medical information that data brokers get elsewhere, such as from the purchase of over-the-counter drugs and other health care items, is fair game. 
 
 In some cases, such lists could put people in harm's way. The list of more than 30,000 police officers' home addresses, for example, could put the lives of the officers and their families in danger, said Dixon. Meanwhile, a list of seniors suffering from dementia could open them up to predatory financial offers. 
 
 Related: Find out what Big Data knows about you 
 
 Linda Woolley, president of the Direct Marketing Association, said in a statement that such lists represent a "tiny minority" of marketing products. 
 
 "We recognize that there are situations in which lists are being used to disparage certain groups," she said. "That is not something that DMA supports." 
 
 She added that some names of lists may be misleading as to the information it contains and that most lists typically focus on a person's likely interests, such as whether someone is a "sports enthusiast" or "avid traveler." 
 
 Some data brokers offer ways to opt out, but many have unclear opt-out procedures or none at all. Plus, most consumers have no idea they're on the lists in the first place, said Dixon. 
 
 Related: What your wireless carrier knows about you 
 
 Wednesday's hearing came after a year-long Senate committee investigation into the $156 billion data brokerage industry. The Federal Trade Commission has also called on major data brokers to increase transparency into their data practices. 
 
 Committee chairman John "Jay" Rockefeller criticized several of the country's largest data brokers for resisting the oversight and said he would continue to push for information on how they get data and who they sell it to. 
 
 In his closing remarks, the senator said he was "revolted" by the lists Dixon had revealed and said the commission would continue to explore the issue. 
 
 "I think it's our job as government to... bring into sunlight what is going on," he said. "I think its serious, and I think it's a dark underside of American life, in which people make a lot of money and cause people to suffer even more." ||||| The Senate Commerce Committee issued a report on the multibillion dollar data industry today, and the accompanying testimony and findings are chilling. 
 
 Over the last year, the Committee queried nine of the major data companies and invited testimony from privacy groups. What's emerged is that collectively, these companies own an astounding number of consumer profiles, and they're selling deeply personal information — sometimes to identity thieves — in categories like rape victims, people with cancer, and “Rural and Barely Making It.” 
 
 One data broker is selling lists of addresses and names of consumers suffering from conditions including cancer, diabetes, and depression, and the medications used for those conditions; another is offering lists naming consumers, their credit scores, and specific health conditions. 
 
 Of the nine companies the Committee approached — Acxiom, Experian, Epsilon, Reed Elsevier, Equifax, TransUnion, Rapleaf, Spokeo, and Datalogix — "some" were forthcoming. The report mentions Equifax as being particularly cooperative. 
 
 Others weren't. Acxiom, which according to the report has “multi-sourced insight into approximately 700 million consumers worldwide,” Experian, and Epsilon refused to explain how they collected their data or who they were selling it to, citing confidentiality clauses in their contracts. (The Attorney General of New Jersey recently released documents indicating Acxiom sold another company, Dataium, 400,000 dossiers for a mere $2,500.) 
 
 In October, Experian admitted that it sold personal information — including social security numbers and banking information — through a subsidiary to an alleged online identity theft ring. That same subsidiary, Court Ventures, also appeared on a list of companies that requested private information about gun permit holders in Virginia. 
 
 Equifax told the Committee they had information as specific as: 
 
 Whether a consumer purchased a particular soft drink or shampoo product in the last six months 
 
 Whether they use laxatives or yeast infection products 
 
 How many OB/GYN doctor visits they've had within the last 12 months 
 
 How many miles they traveled in the last 4 weeks 
 
 The number of whiskey drinks they consumed in the past 30 days. 
 
 That data is then sorted into a dictionary with more than 75,000 data points like, "whether the individual or household is a pet owner, smokes, has a propensity to purchase prescriptions through the mail, donates to charitable causes, is active military or a veteran, holds certain insurance products including burial insurance or juvenile life insurance, enjoys reading romance novels, or is a hunter." 
 
 Privacy groups testified that the companies also sell lists of rape victims and people with HIV and AIDs. 
 
 This fine-tuned data collection isn't new — last year, the Times reported a story of how Target figured out a teenager was pregnant before her father did. Even in 2007, the Times reported on a company selling lists like, “Oldies but Goodies,” 500,000 gamblers over 55 years old, for 8.5 cents each, and one list that said: “These people are gullible. They want to believe that their luck can change.” 
 
 But their databases are growing infinitely, and there are still no relevant consumer protection laws in place to protect individual privacy. And despite recent transparency efforts — like Acxiom's aboutthedata.com — that also means the consumers on these lists still have no right to find out what information is out there, or who is buying it. 
 
 [image via Shutterstock]
– Secretive data companies are tracking almost every American's every move online—and compiling and selling disturbingly targeted lists based on that spying, a new Senate Commerce Committee report concludes. That includes lists of rape victims, people suffering from ailments including HIV, AIDS, and dementia, and people with substance abuse problems, a privacy group said in a hearing yesterday, as per CNN. Mailing addresses for police officers and domestic violence shelters—the latter of which are usually protected by law—are also for sale, as are lists based on demographics and economics, including "Ethnic Second-City Strugglers," and "Rural and Barely Making It." The World Privacy Forum urged Congress to act to "remove unsafe, unfair, and overall just deplorable lists from circulation." The Direct Marketing Association released a statement saying that while the lists are occasionally "used to disparage certain groups," they represented a "tiny minority" of marketing products. Overall the committee looked at nine companies, some of which refused to explain how they got their data or who they sold it to, Gawker reports. One company admitted it had sold social security numbers and banking information to an alleged identity theft ring.