WOULD you like to donate to the Obama campaign? Sign up for a college course? Or maybe subscribe to Architectural Digest?

If you have ever felt inundated by such solicitations, by e-mail or by snail mail, you may have wondered what you did to deserve it.

I did.

I wondered how all those campaigns, companies and institutions got my number. And how much money data brokers behind the scenes might make by flipping my name and address.

Turns out there’s no easy way for consumers in the United States to track the data dealers who profile our spending, Web browsing and social media habits, the better to sell us stuff. Although the Federal Trade Commission issued a consumer privacy report last month urging companies that collect and share customer information to give people more notification and control over the proliferation of their personal details, the recommendations don’t have the force of binding regulations.