Where Data Brokers Get Their Information
Data brokers draw from an enormous variety of sources — and the breadth of that sourcing is what makes their profiles so comprehensive. No single source tells your whole story, but assembled together, the pieces form a surprisingly detailed picture.
Major source categories include:
- Public records: Court documents, property records, voter registration files, and professional licenses are often publicly accessible and legally available for commercial use.
- Purchase and loyalty data: Retailers, loyalty card programs, and e-commerce platforms may sell anonymized or aggregated transaction data that gets matched back to individuals.
- Online activity: Website tracking tools, advertising networks, and app data contribute behavioral signals. To understand how tracking technologies feed this pipeline, see our guide on how cookies track you across the web.
- Social media and directories: Publicly visible profiles, check-ins, and bios can all be scraped and incorporated.
- Other data brokers: Companies in this industry routinely buy and sell data from one another, amplifying the reach of any single dataset.
4,000+
Estimated number of data broker companies operating in the U.S.
Privacy advocacy organizations and industry analysts estimate several thousand data broker companies are active in the United States, ranging from large publicly traded firms to small specialized operators.
$280B+
Estimated annual global data broker industry revenue
Industry research groups have estimated the global data brokerage market generates hundreds of billions of dollars annually, reflecting how central personal data has become to the broader digital economy.
~40
Average number of data brokers holding a typical adult's profile
Privacy researchers have estimated that a typical American adult may have a profile held by dozens of data brokers simultaneously, though the exact number varies depending on individual activity and location.
What a Typical Profile Can Contain
The profiles that data brokers assemble go well beyond basic contact information. Depending on the broker and the data sources they use, a profile on an average adult American might include:
- Full name, current and past addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses
- Estimated household income and net worth bracket
- Political affiliation and donation history (from public records)
- Consumer interest categories — such as health, travel, or financial products
- Inferred life events, like a recent move, marriage, or new parenthood
- Background check data, including criminal records or civil judgments
These profiles are then packaged into segments and sold to businesses who want to target specific audiences — for advertising, recruiting, insurance underwriting, or fraud detection purposes.
Health Data Is Not Fully Protected
Many people assume their health information is protected everywhere. In reality, HIPAA only covers data held by healthcare providers, insurers, and their direct business associates. Health interests inferred from your search history, app usage, or purchasing behavior are not covered by HIPAA and can be collected and sold by data brokers.
For a plain-English breakdown of terms like "metadata" and "inferred data" that appear throughout privacy discussions, the personal data online glossary is a useful companion resource.
Your Options for Limiting Data Broker Access
While completely opting out of the data broker ecosystem is difficult, there are practical steps that can reduce your exposure.
Submit opt-out requests. Many data brokers are legally required to honor removal requests, particularly in states like California under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Each broker has its own process, and requests typically need to be renewed periodically as new data can re-enter their systems.
Audit your digital footprint. Review the privacy settings on social media accounts and consider limiting what information is publicly visible. The less data that is publicly available, the fewer sources brokers can draw from.
Use privacy-protective tools carefully. Some browser extensions and privacy-focused services aim to reduce the data collected about you as you browse. Evaluate these tools independently before trusting them with sensitive information.
Understand your state rights. Privacy law in the U.S. varies significantly by state. If your state has a data privacy law, it may grant you the right to know what data is held about you, request its deletion, or opt out of its sale.
Start With the Largest Brokers First
If you want to reduce your data broker footprint, begin by submitting opt-out requests to the largest and most widely used brokers — they supply data to many smaller downstream companies. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and similar nonprofit resources maintain updated lists of known data brokers and their opt-out processes to help you prioritize.
No single action eliminates data broker exposure entirely. A consistent, layered approach — combined with staying informed about how the data economy works — offers the most realistic path to meaningful privacy protection.
Frequently Asked Questions
In most of the United States, data brokerage is legal under existing federal law. However, some states — notably California, Virginia, and Colorado — have enacted consumer privacy laws that grant residents rights like opt-out and data deletion requests. The regulatory landscape is evolving, so checking your state's laws is advisable.
Data brokers can hold a wide range of information, including your name, address history, phone numbers, email addresses, estimated income, purchasing habits, political and consumer interests, and even inferred health interests. The depth of a profile depends on the broker and the sources they access.
Most data brokers offer an opt-out process, but each company requires a separate request. You can submit opt-out requests manually through each broker's website, or use a privacy-focused removal service to help manage the process. Keep in mind that removal is rarely permanent — data can reappear over time.
Data brokers cannot legally access protected health information covered by HIPAA. However, they can and do collect health-related inferences from your online behavior, app usage, and purchases — for example, searches for specific conditions or purchases of health products — which are not covered by the same protections.
Data broker customers include marketers, employers conducting background checks, insurers, financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, researchers, and even other data brokers. The uses range from targeted advertising to fraud detection and identity verification.
People-search sites are a subset of the broader data broker industry. They make profiles searchable directly by the public, often displaying addresses, relatives, and phone numbers. Other data brokers operate more in the background, selling aggregated datasets to businesses rather than individual consumers.
The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Always consult a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.