I graduated from high school and college in Conway, Ark. The biggest company in our town was called Acxiom (News - Alert).

Acxiom snatched up many of my college classmates and friends, either at recruiting events or during my friends' post-collegiate job hunts. One friend worked the Help Desk, one worked in computer programming and another would always bring home large binders filled with sheets of paper covered in dot matrix-printed number series.

"What does Acxiom do?" I would ask them.

They would look at me and shrug. To me, it seemed as though they couldn't really explain what Acxiom did, but it didn't matter because if the employees did what they were supposed to do, they collected a steady paycheck.

Acxiom is, according to CNN, "the biggest company you've never heard of." However, it's highly likely that they've heard of you. That's because Acxiom collects, compiles and sells consumer data. In fact, it recorded $1.1 billion in 2011 by collecting and selling data on 144 million American households.

The company probably knows your income bracket, your age, what you like to purchase, where you go on vacation, which health conditions you have and scores of other interesting bits of information about little old you.

Americans have a lot of cognitive dissonance regarding information gathering and monitoring, don't we? The drama surrounding the NSA's monitoring of American citizens, from PRISM to Edward Snowden to the giant data storage facility that the government is building in Utah, has bothered many Americans—and rightly so.

Yet companies like Acxiom have been monitoring us, compiling profiles of us and distributing those profiles for years. They're the reason you receive certain advertisements through direct mail, e-mail and on your computer screen. Many congressional leaders, along with President Obama, have called for updates to U.S. laws protecting consumer privacy during the era of big data.

Now, FTC (News - Alert) member Julie Brill has proposed creating an online portal in which big data companies would allow each consumer to see his or her information. In other words, through Brill's "Reclaim Your Name" program, you could see exactly what companies like Acxiom know about you, and you could correct potential errors, just like you do on your credit report.

Reclaim Your Name would also allow consumers to opt out of having companies like Acxiom collect and sell their data.

I doubt that the NSA has an "opt-out" for PRISM and its other domestic spying programs, but I wonder why so many people oppose government spying yet have no problem whatsoever with Acxiom and other consumer data collection companies.

After all, the NSA just wants to know if you're a terrorist. Companies like Acxiom want to know a whole lot more.