Data Broker

TLDR: Data brokers collect data about individuals and businesses from many sources. They aggregate, enrich, and sell that data to marketers, insurers, employers, and governments — often without the subjects’ knowledge.

A data broker (also called an information broker or data reseller) is a business that acquires data from multiple sources, combines it, and sells the result. The US Federal Trade Commission has identified hundreds of data brokers operating in the United States alone. Most consumers have never interacted with the companies that hold detailed profiles about them.

Where Data Brokers Get Their Data

1. Public Records: Voter rolls, property records, court filings, and business registrations.
2. Purchase History: Retail loyalty programs and credit card transaction data sold by banks or retailers.
3. Social Media: Publicly visible profile information, activity, and connections.
4. Web Tracking: Cookies, pixels, and device fingerprints collected across websites.
5. Other Brokers: Data brokers buy from each other to fill gaps and expand coverage.

What Data Brokers Sell

1. Consumer Profiles: Name, address, income estimate, purchase behavior, and interests.
2. Business Intelligence: Company size, revenue, key contacts, and technology stack.
3. Risk Scores: Credit risk, fraud likelihood, and insurance risk assessments.
4. Marketing Lists: Segmented contact lists for email, direct mail, and digital advertising.
5. Identity Verification: Data used to confirm a person’s identity during onboarding.

Regulation and Consumer Rights

Data broker regulation varies significantly by jurisdiction. The EU’s GDPR grants individuals the right to access, correct, and erase data held about them. California’s CCPA gives residents the right to opt out of data sales. Vermont and Texas require data brokers to register with state authorities. The FTC has called on Congress to pass a federal data broker registry law.

Data Brokers vs Transparent Web Data Collection

Traditional data brokers operate with limited transparency about data origins and freshness. Bright Data’s datasets marketplace provides web-sourced data with clear collection methods and update frequencies. Data is sourced from the public web via structured collection, not from opaque third-party pipelines. This makes it auditable and compliant for enterprise use cases.