“Stealing personal information is much easier if all that data is aggregated,” says Bob Gourley, co-founder of Cognitio Corp, a firm that does security consulting, and former Chief Technology Officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Using advanced tracking tools, artificial intelligence, and botnets, a malicious actor could “learn if an individual is going to be out of town at a certain time,” explains Gourley. Similarly, access to personal-finance and medical information could help would-be criminals commit fraud later on.