Data Broker
A company that collects, aggregates, and sells personal data — including home addresses, phone numbers, financial history, and social media activity — often without the subject's knowledge.
Also known as: people-search site, information broker, data aggregator
Last reviewed: 10 June 2026
Data brokers operate largely in the background of the information economy, purchasing records from public sources, retail loyalty programmes, mobile apps, and other data holders, then packaging and selling detailed profiles to marketers, employers, landlords, insurers, and increasingly to scammers who purchase bulk lists.
From a consumer-protection standpoint, data brokers are a significant enabler of targeted fraud. Scammers who purchase data-broker lists can call victims by name, reference their neighbourhood or recent purchases, and sound convincingly like a genuine contact — dramatically increasing the success rate of social-engineering attacks. Elderly consumers are disproportionately targeted because their data is widely available and they may be less familiar with how it circulates.
Many data brokers operate opt-out registries, but these must be submitted individually to hundreds of companies and must be renewed periodically. Services that automate opt-out requests can reduce a person's data footprint substantially, though complete removal is rarely achievable. Limiting what you share with apps and loyalty programmes limits the data that enters this ecosystem.