Pharmaceutical companies pay RealAge to compile test results of RealAge members and send them marketing messages by e-mail. The drug companies can even use RealAge answers to find people who show symptoms of a disease — and begin sending them messages about it even before the people have received a diagnosis from their doctors. It acts as a clearinghouse for drug companies, including Pfizer , Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline , allowing them to use almost any combination of answers from the test to find people to market to, including whether someone is taking antidepressants , how sexually active they are and even if their marriage is happy. RealAge’s privacy policy does not specifically address the firm’s relationship with drug companies, but does state, in part, “we will share your personal data with third parties to fulfill the services that you have asked us to provide to you,” and it adds test results to its database only when respondents become RealAge members. read more

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