A data broker is a company that collects, aggregates, and sells personal information about people it has no direct relationship with. Data brokers gather data from public records, social media, online purchases, surveys, and hundreds of other sources to build detailed consumer profiles; then they sell those profiles to marketers, employers, insurance companies, and anyone willing to pay.
According to Grand View Research, the global data broker industry was valued at approximately $278 billion in 2024 and is projected to exceed $512 billion by 2033. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has identified more than 750 registered data brokers in the United States alone, and Maximize Market Research estimates up to 5,000 operate globally.
You’ve never signed up for their services or given them permission. Yet data brokers likely know your name, address, phone number, income, shopping habits, political affiliations, and health conditions. Major data broker companies include Acxiom, Experian, CoreLogic, Epsilon, Oracle Data Cloud, and Equifax.
→ Data Brokers vs. People Search Sites: What’s the Difference?
How Data Brokers Collect Your Information
Data brokers collect personal information from legal sources, not through hacking or theft. Their primary sources include public government records (property, court, voter files), online tracking (cookies, pixels, app data), loyalty programs and surveys, purchases from retailers and other companies, and algorithmic inference that estimates characteristics like income and health status from existing data.
→ How Do Data Brokers Get Your Information? 5 Methods Explained
What Information Do Data Brokers Have About You?
Data brokers typically hold thousands of data points on each individual, and the scale is staggering. The FTC’s landmark 2014 study on data brokers found that one broker alone maintained 3,000 data segments for nearly every U.S. consumer: the industry has only expanded since. Broker profiles typically include your full name, date of birth, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, financial estimates, family information, employment history, legal records, health indicators, and online behavior data.
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→ What Information Do Data Brokers Collect? The Full List
Why Data Brokers Are Dangerous
Your exposed personal information creates measurable risks. The FTC reported that consumer fraud losses hit $12.5 billion in 2024 (a 25% year-over-year jump) with identity theft driving over a million of those cases. Billions of robocalls reach Americans every year, many fueled by phone numbers and demographic data purchased from brokers. Beyond fraud and spam, data brokers enable doxxing, employment discrimination, insurance premium manipulation, targeted scams, and price discrimination.
→ Why Are Data Brokers Dangerous? 7 Risks Explained
Are Data Brokers Legal?
Data broker activities are largely legal in the United States. No comprehensive federal privacy law governs the data broker industry, though the FCRA, HIPAA, and COPPA cover specific sectors. State data broker laws like California’s CCPA/CPRA, Virginia’s VCDPA, and others provide growing consumer protections. In January 2026, California launched the DROP platform, a first-of-its-kind public service for data broker deletion requests.
→ Are Data Brokers Legal? Laws and Your Rights Explained
How to Remove Your Information from the Internet
Removing your information from data broker sites requires finding each broker’s opt-out page, locating your record, submitting a request, waiting for processing, and verifying removal — repeated across hundreds of sites. According to Consumer Reports, the manual opt-out process is so time-consuming that most consumers abandon it before finishing even a fraction of the sites. That’s why continuous, automated removal outperforms one-time manual efforts. The problem isn’t just removing data, it’s keeping it removed.
→ How to Remove Your Information from the Internet: Step-by-Step
Why Your Information Keeps Coming Back
Data brokers refresh databases every 60–90 days from public records, partner feeds, and other brokers. Opt-out requests only affect the current version of a record. Life changes like moving, changing jobs, or buying property trigger new listings.
→ Why Does My Information Keep Reappearing on Data Broker Sites?
Best Data Broker Removal Services
The best data broker removal services scan hundreds of broker sites, submit opt-out requests, monitor for reappearances, and automatically re-submit removals. They outperform manual efforts in coverage, consistency, and time savings.
RemoveMe scans 115+ of the most widely accessed data broker and people search sites, submits opt-outs automatically, monitors for reappearances, and provides real-time reporting on your privacy status.
