A data broker is a company that collects, aggregates, and sells your personal information — name, address, phone, income, family, court history, and more — to advertisers, scammers, employers, and anyone else who pays. There are thousands of them in 2026, and most operate without your knowledge or consent. The good news: you can remove yourself. PrivacyOn automates removal across 100+ of the biggest brokers so your data stops circulating.
The Short Definition
A data broker (also called an information broker, information reseller, or people-search site) is any business whose product is you — or more precisely, a detailed profile of you built from public records, purchase history, browser tracking, mobile app data, and social media. That profile is packaged and sold to third parties who use it for marketing, background checks, risk scoring, political targeting, or in the worst cases, fraud and stalking.
The Data Broker Industry in 2026
The global data broker market is projected to exceed $450 billion in 2026. Roughly 4,000 companies actively broker U.S. consumer data — most Americans have profiles on 100+ of them without ever hearing the company's name.
How Data Brokers Collect Your Information
Data brokers pull from dozens of sources. Most collection is legal but almost none of it requires your consent:
Public Records
- Property records — who owns which house, purchase price, tax bills
- Voter registration — name, address, party, sometimes age
- Court records — civil suits, criminal history, divorce filings
- Marriage and divorce records
- DMV records in some states
- Bankruptcy filings, tax liens, business filings
Commercial Data Purchases
- Loyalty programs — grocery cards, hotel rewards, airline miles
- Retail purchase history — what you buy, how often, at what price
- Warranty and product registration
- Magazine and newsletter subscriptions
- Credit header data from bureaus (name, address, SSN partials)
Digital Tracking
- Web cookies and tracking pixels across nearly every commercial website
- Mobile app SDKs — location, contacts, device IDs sold from apps you use daily
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth beacons in retail stores
- Connected car telematics — driving habits, locations, speed
- Smart TV viewing data
- Social media scraping — your posts, photos, relationships, employer
Data Purchases and Swaps
The biggest brokers (Acxiom, Epsilon, LiveRamp, Oracle Data Cloud) also buy and license data from each other, meaning even one leak or exposure can multiply your profile across the industry within weeks.
The Four Types of Data Brokers
1. People-Search Sites
The ones most people notice: Spokeo, BeenVerified, WhitePages, TruePeopleSearch, MyLife, Radaris, and others. They publish your name, age, address, phone, relatives, and often previous addresses on public pages that show up in Google when someone searches your name.
2. Marketing Aggregators
Acxiom, Experian Marketing Services, Epsilon, Oracle Data Cloud. They power the ads you see across the web. Their databases hold thousands of attributes per person: household income estimate, likely political leanings, health conditions, purchase categories, and more.
3. Risk and Fraud Brokers
LexisNexis Risk Solutions, TransUnion TLO, Thomson Reuters CLEAR. They sell to banks, insurers, landlords, and law enforcement. Their data is often more accurate and more granular than what marketing brokers hold.
4. Ad Tech and Real-Time Bidding
Every time an ad loads on a webpage, dozens of ad-tech vendors receive a bid request that can include your rough location, device ID, browsing history category, and inferred demographics — leaking data to bidders whether or not they win.
How Data Brokers Sell Your Information
Brokers monetize you in several ways:
- Subscription APIs — marketers pay for real-time lookups on your address, phone, or email
- Bulk list sales — "All homeowners in ZIP 90210 who bought in the last 12 months" sold for pennies per name
- Pay-per-lookup people search — anyone can pay $2–$30 to unlock a full report on you
- Data enrichment — a company gives a broker your email, and the broker returns your address, phone, income, and household size
- Ad targeting audiences — anonymous-in-name audience segments that de-anonymize easily
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The Real Harm Data Brokers Cause
Identity Theft and Fraud
Fraudsters buy people-search reports to compile enough personal information to answer knowledge-based authentication questions, take over accounts, and open new credit in your name.
Scams and Phishing
The IRS scam call that knew your address? The Medicare scam that knew your birth year? The romance scammer who found your kids' names? All bought or scraped from broker data.
Stalking and Physical Danger
People-search sites publish home addresses in plain text. Journalists, judges, healthcare workers, domestic violence survivors, and abortion providers have all been doxxed and physically threatened using data broker profiles.
Employment and Housing Discrimination
Landlords and employers pull broker reports containing outdated or wrong information, court records with no context, and evictions from cases that were dismissed — costing people jobs and homes with no recourse.
Insurance and Financial Penalties
Insurers use broker data to price you. So do lenders. Data brokers you've never heard of can be quietly costing you real money every month.
Why This Keeps Getting Worse in 2026
AI-driven scams need three things to work: your name, your context, and your phone or email. Data brokers provide all three in a single lookup. Every AI-powered phishing campaign, deepfake voice call, and precision-targeted scam in 2026 is downstream of the data broker industry.
Are Data Brokers Legal?
Mostly yes, under U.S. federal law. There's no comprehensive federal privacy law that regulates data brokers as a class. Some states have started to fight back:
- California's DELETE Act — by 2026, Californians can submit one deletion request through the state DROP platform and have it honored by every registered data broker.
- Vermont, Texas, Oregon — broker registration laws with limited consumer rights.
- The CFPB's 2026 rulemaking is expanding FCRA coverage to more brokers, treating some as consumer reporting agencies.
- Fifteen states now have comprehensive privacy laws (CCPA/CPRA, VCDPA, CPA, CTDPA, etc.) that give you deletion rights against brokers who touch their residents' data.
State laws help, but they're a patchwork. If you don't live in a covered state, or if a broker refuses to honor a request, your only real leverage is the site-by-site opt-out process each broker publishes on its own website.
How to Remove Yourself From Data Brokers
Option 1: Do It Yourself
Every major broker has an opt-out page. You'll typically:
- Find your public profile on the site
- Submit a removal request (often via a form + email verification)
- Wait 7–45 days for removal
- Check monthly — brokers republish profiles from fresh data feeds
DIY works. It also takes 30–60 hours per year across 100+ brokers, and re-listing is constant.
Option 2: Use PrivacyOn
PrivacyOn automates removal across 100+ data brokers and monitors for re-listings, so profiles get removed again the moment they reappear. You submit your info once; PrivacyOn does the rest. It's the practical option for anyone who doesn't want data broker removal as a part-time job.
Start With a Free Scan
Run PrivacyOn's free scan to see exactly which brokers are exposing you — no credit card required. You'll see your actual profiles, live, and know exactly how bad your exposure is.
Why PrivacyOn Is the Best Way to Take Back Control
PrivacyOn is our top pick for data broker removal because it:
- Removes from 100+ data brokers — covers the sites that matter
- Includes 24/7 dark web monitoring for your email, phone, and SSN
- Family plans up to 5 people — protect your household under one plan
- Automatic re-removal — profiles that reappear get taken down again
- Starts at $8.33/month — cheaper than DeleteMe, Aura, or Kanary
- Free initial scan — see your exposure before you decide
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a data broker in simple terms?
A data broker is a company that collects your personal information from public records, retail purchases, apps, and websites, packages it into a profile, and sells that profile to advertisers, scammers, employers, and anyone else willing to pay. Most operate without your knowledge or explicit consent.
Is it legal for data brokers to sell my information?
In most U.S. states, yes. There's no comprehensive federal privacy law regulating data brokers. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and about a dozen other states give residents some deletion rights, but the industry is largely unregulated at the federal level.
How do data brokers get my personal information?
From public records (property, court, voter), commercial sources (loyalty programs, warranty registrations, credit header data), digital tracking (cookies, mobile app SDKs, connected car data), social media scraping, and data purchases from other brokers. Every source multiplies your exposure.
How many data brokers have my information?
The industry has an estimated 4,000+ brokers in the U.S. Most Americans appear on 100+ people-search sites alone. PrivacyOn's free scan shows exactly where your info is exposed today.
Can I remove myself from data brokers for free?
Yes — every major broker has a free opt-out process. It just takes 30–60 hours per year and constant re-checking because brokers republish profiles from fresh data feeds. PrivacyOn automates the whole process for less than most streaming subscriptions.
Is PrivacyOn better than doing it myself or using DeleteMe?
Yes. PrivacyOn covers 100+ brokers (versus DeleteMe's advertised sites), automatically re-removes profiles that reappear, includes dark web monitoring, offers family plans up to 5 people, and starts at $8.33/month — cheaper than DeleteMe. Run a free scan and see for yourself.