Data brokers collect and aggregate your personal information from apps, websites, public records, credit reports, and more. They then share and sell this data to almost anyone they choose, often with little oversight, earning billions of dollars each year.

This can lead to the abuse of your personal information. For example, governments can buy data they’d otherwise need a warrant to get.

If you live in the US and would prefer not to have data collected and stored like this, it’s up to you to figure out who has it and how to opt out (when opting out is even possible).

Meanwhile, data brokers face few barriers. In many jurisdictions, they analyze, share, and resell your information to companies, advertisers, and even governments, with scant regulation and no obligation to notify you. As AI-driven ad personalization is being developed, the value of your personal data has never been higher — and neither has the risk you’re facing.

In 2024, the data broker market was worth about $270 billion(nieuw venster), and it’s expected to exceed $470 billion by 2032. Some of the largest players, like Acxiom, Equifax, and Experian, have data on hundreds of millions of people and make billions of dollars each year(nieuw venster) selling access to their databases.

It’s a huge and scattered industry, with as many as 5,000 companies collecting and selling data worldwide. While there has been some pushback, with the implementation of laws like the GDPR(nieuw venster) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act(nieuw venster), enforcement is still patchy.

With that much money on the table and so many players involved, it’s almost certain that your personal data has already been collected, which could lead to identity theft, financial fraud, or you being denied credit, housing, or insurance.

What are data brokers?

Data brokers are companies or individuals that collect, process, and sell or share personal information about people — often without their direct knowledge, consent, or compensation.

They gather data from various sources, such as public records (like property ownership and court documents), online activity (web tracking, cookies, social media scraping), retail and loyalty programs, mobile apps and location data, credit reporting, and financial institutions.

Once collected, this data is compiled into detailed profiles and sold to third parties such as advertisers (for targeted ads), insurance companies (for risk assessment), employers (for background checks), law enforcement (for criminal investigations in some jurisdictions), and even political campaigns (for voter targeting).

What do data brokers collect?

If a behavior or preference can be quantified, odds are there is a data broker monitoring that data and selling it. However, the most commonly collected data includes:

  • Identity and contact information, such as your full name, aliases, date of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, past addresses, and Social Security number.
  • Demographics, such as your gender, age, ethnicity, marital status, education, occupation, and income.
  • Online behavior, such as visited websites, search history, clicked ads, social media activity, online purchases, and newsletter sign-ups.
  • Location data, based on your GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, app data, and geotagged photos.
  • Purchasing habits, such as your shopping behavior, brand preferences, loyalty cards, subscriptions, and anonymized credit card use.
  • Financial profiles based on your credit score, loans, mortgages, property ownership, and public financial records like bankruptcies or liens.
  • Health signals based on fitness tracker data, health-related searches, pharmacy purchases, and potential medical conditions.
  • Lifestyle and beliefs, such as hobbies, political leanings, religious affiliation, personality traits, and media habits.
  • Social and professional connections, such as household members, relatives, friends, co-workers, and employment history.

Read more: Your address is out there — and it’s not hard to find

Where do data brokers get their data?

In the age of surveillance capitalism, a sophisticated ecosystem of data trackers has developed, and nearly all of them eventually feed into data brokers’ databases. This list includes:

  • Public records and government sources, such as court filings, property deeds, voter registrations, and marriage licenses.
  • Retail and commercial data, such as purchase history, loyalty programs, warranty cards, and catalog sign-ups.
  • Online tracking, as websites and apps may use cookies, pixels, and trackers to record your browsing, clicks, and activity.
  • Social media, such as public posts, likes, followers, and check-ins.
  • Apps and services that sell or share user data with brokers — often quietly and buried through terms of service.
  • Data held by credit bureaus, such as credit reports and financial activity, may be shared under certain conditions with brokers, particularly in the US.
  • Surveys and sweepstakes, where people voluntarily disclose their personal information.
  • Location data collected by apps that ask for GPS access (like weather or fitness apps) then sold as anonymized movement patterns.

Data brokers reduce your life to data points — here’s how

Data brokers thrive because there are countless organizations willing to pay top dollar for your data. This information can be used for nearly anything, from targeting ads to tracking down suspects. Some of the most popular customers and use cases include:

  • Businesses buy detailed consumer profiles — such as “new parents in urban area” or “tech-savvy homeowners” — for targeted ads, customer acquisition, and retention.
  • Insurance companies use brokered data to assess your risk and set premiums, often based on inferred behaviors like health risks or driving habits.
  • Lenders can use brokered data for alternative credit scoring by relying on information like shopping habits or bill payment history when traditional credit reports fall short.
  • Political campaigns may buy voter data to tailor messages based on your views, past donations, or issues more likely to concern you. For instance, suburban voters concerned about education funding may be targeted with school-focused ads.
  • Some brokers run or feed data into websites that let anyone look up people’s names, addresses, relatives, and phone numbers.
  • Governments or law enforcement agencies may buy data(nieuw venster), such as location or financial data, rather than request it with a warrant.
  • Data brokers may trade data with one another to enrich their databases and expand their reach into new industries and regions.

How does your brokered data shape decisions about you?

The impact this data trade can have is far-reaching, often hidden from public view, and deeply personal. They collect and monetize information that may not seem significant on its own — like the apps you use or the stores you frequent.

But these fragments can be combined to create a surprisingly detailed portrait of your life, including routines, preferences, financial standing, and vulnerabilities. While some of this data isn’t directly tied to your name, it’s often linked to persistent identifiers (like your IP address(nieuw venster) or browser fingerprint), making it easy to re-identify(nieuw venster) you without ever showing your face.

Once your personal data is exposed and centralized, it can be traded endlessly — with little chance of you regaining control. And while you may never have knowingly agreed to it, you could become a target for cyberattacks if the company holding your data is breached, potentially leading to identity theft, fraud, or even stalking.

Beyond privacy and security risks, the lack of transparency is just as troubling. People rarely know what’s collected about them or how it’s used, and attempts to delete data are often complex by design.

Worse still, these detailed profiles can be used to influence decisions that shape your life, beyond personalized ads or targeted political messaging. They can manipulate behavior, amplify misinformation, and silently reinforce bias, exclusion, or discrimination.

Major players

These companies lead the $270 billion data broker industry: Acxiom, Experian, Equifax, Epsilon, and Oracle Data Cloud. Here’s what you should know about the first three:

Acxiom

Acxiom is one of the world’s largest data brokers, operating in 36 countries and processing 1.2 trillion records a month — much of it collected directly from people. It claims to have data on 2.6 billion individuals, each profiled using over 10,000 traits.

Experian

Experian is a global data broker and credit reporting giant, active in 32 countries with over 200 million users and 150,000 business clients. It has 5,000 data points and 2,400 audience segments.

Equifax

Equifax is a global credit-reporting powerhouse and a major data broker that operates in 24 countries. With nearly $5 billion in annual revenue, the company aggregates data on over 800 million individuals and 88 million businesses worldwide.

How can you stop data brokers from collecting your information?

You can’t completely stop data collection by brokers, but you can reduce it. Here’s how:

  • Limit what you share, avoid giving real details like your full name or actual birthdate when signing up for services, and think twice before filling out quizzes, surveys, or sweepstakes forms.
  • When subscribing to online services, use email aliases that forward messages to your main inbox. This protects your real email address, lets you identify who shared or leaked the alias, and allows you to easily disable or delete the alias if you start getting spam.
  • Review your mobile apps, remove the ones you don’t use, and deny location access and tracking permissions for apps that don’t need them.
  • Use privacy-first tools every time you go online, including browsers and search engines with tracker blockers, a VPN(nieuw venster) to mask your IP and encrypt your traffic, secure cloud storage that doesn’t scan your data, and encrypted email for safe communications.
  • Opt out of data brokers such as Acxiom(nieuw venster) and Experian(nieuw venster) and look yourself up and request removal from people-search websites. You can also use services like DeleteMe or Privacy Bee, which submit opt-out requests on your behalf across many websites, although they’re not always effective(nieuw venster).

You can take steps to reduce your exposure — every bit helps. But ultimately, the only real way to stop data brokers from collecting, selling, and exploiting your personal information is through strong, enforceable regulation.

Until that happens, tools that put you in control of your data are your best defense.