What Is a Data Broker?

There are companies that know where you live, who your relatives are, what you earn, and what you drive. They sell that information to anyone willing to pay. They're called data brokers, and most people have never heard of them.

The Simple Definition

A data broker (also called an information broker or people-search site) is a company that collects personal information about individuals from public and private sources, compiles it into detailed profiles, and sells access to those profiles—usually without the subject's knowledge or consent.

Unlike Facebook or Google, which collect your data to show you ads, data brokers sell your information directly to third parties: marketers, background check companies, employers, landlords, private investigators, law enforcement, and in some cases, scammers and stalkers.

Where Do Data Brokers Get Your Information?

Data brokers are legal because they rely on publicly available information. Here's where they get it:

Public Records

Voter registration rolls, property deeds, court records, marriage and divorce filings, bankruptcy records, DMV data, and professional licensing databases are all public information that governments make freely accessible. Data brokers harvest all of it automatically.

Loyalty Programs & Retail Data

When you sign up for a loyalty card, your purchase history and demographics get sold to data brokers. That grocery store rewards card has been sharing what you buy with dozens of companies you've never heard of.

Social Media & Online Activity

Public social media profiles, forum posts, comment sections, and website registrations all contribute to your profile. Even things you consider private may be scraped if privacy settings allow any public access.

Other Data Brokers

Data brokers buy from each other constantly, cross-referencing and filling in gaps. Your data flows between hundreds of companies, each adding a few more details.

Direct Data Collection

Surveys, sweepstakes entries, magazine subscriptions, and warranty registrations often sell your data directly to brokers. That contest you entered in 2012 is probably still generating data broker revenue.

What Information Do They Have on You?

The typical data broker profile on an American adult includes:

• Full legal name and aliases
• Current and past home addresses
• Phone numbers (mobile & landline)
• Email addresses
• Date of birth
• Relatives and household members
• Estimated income range
• Property ownership and value
• Vehicle registration data
• Employment history
• Social media profiles
• Criminal & civil court records
• Bankruptcy and financial records
• Political affiliation
• Religious affiliation (sometimes)
• Health conditions (from purchase data)

Who Uses Data Brokers?

• Direct marketers: Target ads and mail campaigns by age, income, location, and interests
• Employers: Pre-employment screening and background checks
• Landlords: Tenant screening before leasing
• Insurance companies: Risk assessment when pricing policies
• Financial institutions: Credit decisioning and fraud detection
• Private investigators: Locating individuals for civil/legal matters
• Journalists: Researching subjects for news stories
• Scammers: Finding targets and personalizing fraud attempts
• Stalkers & doxxers: Locating home addresses and family members

Is It Legal?

In most of the US, yes. Data brokering is largely legal because the information they collect is technically "public." Congress has considered federal data broker legislation for years without passing anything comprehensive. The result is a patchwork of state laws:

• California (CCPA/CPRA): Strongest protections — residents can request data deletion and opt out of sale
• Virginia, Colorado, Texas, Connecticut: Similar but narrower consumer data rights
• Most other states: Very limited protections — data brokers operate largely unchecked

Even if you don't live in California, most major data brokers have extended CCPA opt-out rights to all US residents. It's operationally simpler for them than maintaining 13+ separate state workflows.

The Biggest Data Broker Sites

Here are the most prominent data broker and people-search sites you've probably seen in Google results:

• Spokeo
• BeenVerified
• Intelius
• Whitepages
• TruthFinder
• Radaris
• Pipl
• PeopleFinders
• Instant Checkmate
• MyLife
• Acxiom
• LexisNexis
• ZabaSearch
• FastPeopleSearch
• CheckPeople

Plus 485+ others operating at smaller scale

How to Remove Yourself

Every major data broker has an opt-out process. With 500+ sites, manual opt-outs would take 150–200 hours total. And you'd have to repeat it every few months as brokers re-harvest your data from new public records.

Manual approach: Search for your name on each site, find the opt-out form (usually buried in the footer under "Privacy" or "Do Not Sell"), and submit a request. Each site has a different process.

Automated approach: Services like GhostVault automate opt-out requests to 500+ sites and re-submit them automatically when your data reappears, handling the ongoing maintenance that makes manual removal unsustainable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can data brokers sell my health information?

HIPAA protects your medical records from being shared by healthcare providers, but data brokers can legally infer health conditions from purchase data (supplements, medical devices bought at retail) and sell those inferences. This is a significant and largely unregulated gap.

Do data brokers have my Social Security number?

Some do. Major data brokers like LexisNexis and Acxiom—which sell primarily to businesses—hold SSNs. Consumer-facing sites like Spokeo typically don't display SSNs but may hold them in their databases. The 2024 National Public Data breach exposed SSNs for nearly 3 billion people.

What happens to my data if I opt out?

The site is required to remove your public profile. However, they may retain your data internally for compliance and fraud prevention purposes. New public records can re-trigger your profile being added, which is why ongoing monitoring is necessary.

Are data brokers responsible for identity theft?

Not directly, but they create the conditions for it. Studies have found that data broker sites are among the primary tools identity thieves use to research victims. When a broker gets breached, it can expose detailed personal information at massive scale.