What Are Data Brokers?

Data brokers are companies that collect your personal information from public records, online activity, purchase histories, and dozens of other sources, then package it and sell it to anyone willing to pay. They operate an estimated $200 billion industry, and most people have never heard of the companies profiting from their data.

You have probably never signed up for Spokeo, Whitepages, or Radaris. But if you search your name on any of those sites right now, there is a good chance you will find your home address, phone number, email, relatives' names, and more. That information did not appear by accident. Data brokers put it there.

How Data Brokers Get Your Information

Data brokers do not hack into your accounts. They do not need to. The modern data economy gives them plenty of legal avenues to collect your information.

Public Records

Government databases are a goldmine. Property deeds, voter registrations, court filings, marriage licenses, and business incorporations are all public. Data brokers scrape these sources systematically and at scale.

Online Activity

Every time you fill out a form, create an account, or accept cookies on a website, you may be handing data to brokers. Many apps and websites have data-sharing agreements buried in their terms of service. Your browsing behavior, search queries, and social media activity all feed into broker databases.

Purchase History

Loyalty cards, warranty registrations, and e-commerce transactions generate detailed purchase records. Data brokers buy this information from retailers, payment processors, and marketing companies. Your grocery store loyalty card is not just giving you discounts. It is also feeding your shopping habits into a data pipeline.

Data Breach Fallout

When companies get breached, that data often ends up aggregated and resold. While selling stolen data is illegal, the lines blur when breached information gets mixed into data broker databases alongside legally obtained records.

Other Data Brokers

Brokers buy from and sell to each other. One company may collect your address from a property record. Another buys that address and combines it with your phone number from a different source. A third aggregates both and adds your social media profiles. The result is a comprehensive dossier that no single source could produce alone.

The Biggest Data Brokers You Should Know About

Not all data brokers are the same. They generally fall into three categories, and knowing the distinction matters when you are trying to protect yourself.

People Search Sites

These are the most visible data brokers. Anyone can search for you by name and find personal details instantly.

Spokeo aggregates data from 12 billion records across social media, public records, and commercial sources. Searches are free, with detailed reports behind a paywall.
Whitepages is one of the oldest people-search sites, listing phone numbers, addresses, and background information for hundreds of millions of Americans.
BeenVerified compiles criminal records, property ownership, contact information, and social media profiles into searchable reports.
Radaris collects court records, property data, and contact information, and makes it searchable in ways that are difficult to fully opt out of.
Intelius owns multiple people-search brands and aggregates public records, phone listings, and address histories.
FastPeopleSearch offers free access to names, addresses, phone numbers, and known associates with no paywall.

Marketing Data Brokers

These companies operate behind the scenes, selling consumer profiles to advertisers:

Acxiom maintains profiles on over 2.5 billion consumers worldwide, categorizing people by income, interests, political views, and purchase behavior.
Oracle Data Cloud (formerly BlueKai) tracks online behavior across thousands of websites to build advertising profiles.
Epsilon processes over 40 billion marketing transactions annually and maintains one of the largest consumer databases in the world.
LiveRamp connects offline identity data to online advertising platforms.

Risk and Background Check Brokers

These companies sell data to landlords, employers, insurers, and law enforcement:

LexisNexis maintains one of the largest legal and public records databases, used widely in background checks.
CoreLogic holds detailed property and financial records on most American homeowners.

Why Data Brokers Are a Problem

This is not just about getting junk mail. The data broker industry creates real, measurable risks.

Identity Theft

The more personal information available about you online, the easier it is for criminals to impersonate you. A fraudster who can find your full name, date of birth, address history, and relatives' names on people-search sites already has most of what they need to open accounts in your name.

Stalking and Harassment

People-search sites make it trivially easy for anyone to find your home address. Domestic violence survivors, public figures, and anyone dealing with harassment face heightened risk when their location is a simple name search away.

Discrimination

Employers, landlords, and insurers use data broker information to screen people, sometimes based on incomplete, outdated, or flat-out wrong information. Data brokers are not obligated to verify accuracy, and errors in their databases can cost you a job, an apartment, or affordable insurance.

Targeted Scams

Scammers purchase data broker information to craft convincing phishing attacks. When a scam email references your real address, your family members by name, or a recent purchase, it is far more effective than a generic message.

Price Manipulation

Companies use data broker profiles to adjust pricing. Your income estimate, zip code, and browsing history can all influence what price you are shown for insurance, travel, and financial products.

Your Legal Rights

If you are a US resident, several laws give you tools to fight back.

CCPA / CPRA (California)

California's privacy laws give residents the right to know what data brokers have collected, request deletion, and opt out of data sales. The California DELETE Act (SB 362), effective in 2026, creates a one-stop deletion portal for data brokers registered in the state.

State Privacy Laws

Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), Texas (TDPSA), Oregon (OCPA), and over a dozen other states now have consumer privacy laws. Most include the right to delete personal data and opt out of data sales.

FTC Act

The Federal Trade Commission has enforcement authority over deceptive and unfair data practices and has taken action against data brokers for selling sensitive data without consent.

How to Opt Out of Data Brokers

The Manual Approach

You can opt out of data brokers one by one. Each broker has its own process, usually involving:

Searching for your profile on the broker's site
Submitting an opt-out or deletion request
Verifying your identity via email
Waiting days to weeks for processing
Checking back to confirm removal

The problem is scale. Your data likely exists on 50 to 100 or more broker sites. Opting out of each one manually takes an estimated 30 to 40 hours. And because brokers continuously re-collect data, your information often reappears within weeks or months, requiring you to repeat the process.

The Automated Approach

Privacy removal services handle this process for you. They scan data brokers, submit opt-out requests, and monitor for re-listings on an ongoing basis.

If you want to see exactly where your personal information is exposed, run a free privacy scan with GhostMyData. It takes about 60 seconds, and you will get a report showing which data brokers have your data, what information they hold, and how exposed you are. From there, you can decide whether to tackle removals manually or let the platform handle them automatically.

The Bottom Line

Data brokers profit by collecting and selling your personal information, usually without your knowledge. The industry is massive, the risks are real, and opting out manually is a grind. But you are not powerless. Between strengthening privacy laws and tools that automate the removal process, taking control of your data is more achievable now than it has ever been.

The first step is simply finding out what is out there. Once you know, you can act.

What Are Data Brokers? The Complete Guide (2026)