What Data Brokers Know About You (And How to Opt Out)

Right now, dozens of companies you've never heard of are selling detailed information about you. They know where you live, how much your home is worth, whether you have children, your shopping habits, health concerns, political leanings, and much more. These companies are called data brokers, and they operate largely in the shadows of the internet economy.

Unlike social media platforms where you voluntarily create an account, data brokers compile information about you from public records, purchase histories, online activity, and hundreds of other sources. They package this into profiles and sell it to marketers, employers, insurers, and anyone else willing to pay. Understanding this industry and how to remove yourself from it is essential for protecting your privacy.

What Data Brokers Collect

The scope of data collection is staggering. A single data broker profile might include your full name, current and previous addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, age, marital status, number and ages of children, education level, occupation, income range, home value, vehicle ownership, and purchasing habits across dozens of categories.

They know if you shop for organic food, buy pet supplies, subscribe to magazines, donate to political campaigns, or recently searched for medical information online. They track your online behavior across websites, compile your social media activity, and note which emails you open and which links you click.

This information comes from public records like property deeds and voter registration, commercial transactions including store loyalty cards and credit card purchases, website cookies that follow you around the internet, and data shared by apps on your phone. Every digital interaction potentially feeds into these profiles.

How Your Information Gets Used

Marketers use data broker information to target advertisements with precision. When you see an ad for baby products right after searching for pregnancy information, that's data brokers at work. When you receive mail for a product perfectly suited to your hobbies, your profile has been sold to that company.

Employers sometimes purchase background reports that include inferred information about your lifestyle and habits. Insurance companies may use data to assess risk. Political campaigns buy voter data to target messaging. The uses extend far beyond simple advertising into areas that can affect employment, insurance rates, and credit decisions.

Some uses are relatively benign, like reducing junk mail from irrelevant products. Others are more concerning, like differential pricing where companies charge different customers different prices based on their profiles, or identity theft where criminals buy information to impersonate victims.

The Major Data Brokers

Hundreds of data broker companies exist, but several major players dominate the industry. Acxiom is one of the largest, claiming to have information on over 700 million consumers worldwide. Epsilon maintains detailed profiles on hundreds of millions of people. Experian, known primarily as a credit bureau, also operates as a data broker selling marketing lists.

CoreLogic specializes in property and resident data. Oracle Data Cloud aggregates information from numerous online and offline sources. LexisNexis Risk Solutions compiles detailed background reports. Spokeo, BeenVerified, and Whitepages make information publicly searchable, allowing anyone to look up your personal details for a small fee.

Each company has different opt-out procedures, and new data brokers emerge regularly while others rebrand or merge. This fragmented landscape makes comprehensive privacy protection challenging but not impossible.

The Opt-Out Process

Removing your information from data brokers requires patience and persistence. There's no single button to push that removes you from all databases. Instead, you must contact each company individually, often repeatedly.

Start With People Search Sites

Begin with sites that make your information publicly searchable, as these pose the most immediate privacy risk. Spokeo, BeenVerified, Whitepages, Intelius, PeopleFinder, MyLife, and TruthFinder all have opt-out processes, though they make them deliberately difficult to find.

Visit each site and search for yourself. Take screenshots of any profiles you find, as you'll often need to provide profile URLs during the opt-out process. Look for a privacy or opt-out link, usually buried in the footer of the website. Follow the instructions, which typically require you to submit a form or send an email with identifying information.

Major Data Broker Opt-Outs

For Acxiom, visit aboutthedata.com to see what they know about you and submit an opt-out request. The process requires creating an account and verifying your identity, which ironically means providing more information initially.

Epsilon allows opt-outs through their website at epsilon.com/privacy. You'll need to submit your name, address, and email. Oracle's opt-out process is at datacloudoptout.oracle.com and requires similar information.

LexisNexis has multiple databases, requiring separate opt-out requests for different services. Visit their privacy portal at optout.lexisnexis.com and be prepared to submit requests for each database type.

What to Expect

Most companies take 7-30 days to process opt-out requests. Some require you to mail a physical letter with proof of identity. Others make you verify via email or phone. A few deliberately make the process so cumbersome that many people give up.

Document everything. Keep a spreadsheet with the date you submitted each request, confirmation numbers, and follow-up dates. Set calendar reminders to check back after 30 days to verify your information has actually been removed.

Services That Help With Opt-Outs

Several paid services handle opt-out requests on your behalf. DeleteMe, Privacy Duck, and OneRep charge annual fees to continually monitor and remove your information from dozens of data brokers.

These services can be worth the cost if you value your time, as the manual process takes many hours spread over months. However, they're not perfect. They can't access every data broker, new brokers appear regularly, and some companies resist third-party opt-out requests.

Free alternatives include carefully following guides from privacy advocacy organizations like Privacy Rights Clearinghouse or the Electronic Frontier Foundation. These provide updated lists of major data brokers and links to their opt-out processes.

Ongoing Privacy Maintenance

Opting out isn't a one-time task. Data brokers continuously collect new information, and removing yourself doesn't prevent future collection. Your information will gradually creep back into databases through new purchases, public records updates, or sharing from other sources.

Schedule quarterly privacy check-ins where you search for yourself on major people search sites and submit new opt-out requests as needed. Set up Google Alerts for your name and address to monitor when new information appears online.

More importantly, reduce the information you provide going forward. Use loyalty cards sparingly, provide minimal information when making purchases, avoid using your real name on non-essential accounts, and think carefully before sharing personal details on social media.

Limiting Future Data Collection

While removing existing information, take steps to reduce new data collection. Use privacy-focused browsers with tracking protection enabled. Install ad blockers that prevent tracking cookies. Opt out of personalized advertising through industry tools like the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.

When websites ask for your phone number or address, provide this information only when absolutely necessary. Use different email addresses for different purposes so you can identify which companies are sharing your data. Consider using a P.O. box instead of your home address for non-essential mail.

Read privacy policies before using new apps or services. While lengthy and boring, these documents reveal how companies collect and share your information. If a free app collects extensive data about you, remember that you're not the customer but the product being sold to advertisers.

Legal Protections and Their Limitations

Some states have enacted laws giving residents more control over their data. California's Consumer Privacy Act and Virginia's Consumer Data Protection Act allow residents to request that businesses disclose what information they've collected and demand deletion.

However, these laws have significant limitations. They don't apply to many data brokers that claim to only collect publicly available information. They often exempt businesses with fewer than a certain number of consumers or revenue threshold. And they only apply to residents of specific states.

Federal privacy legislation remains weak compared to laws in Europe, where the General Data Protection Regulation gives individuals broad rights to access, correct, and delete their personal data. Until stronger laws pass in the United States, Americans must rely primarily on voluntary opt-out processes.

The Realistic Expectations

Complete privacy is nearly impossible in the modern digital economy. Even after extensive opt-out efforts, some information will remain in commercial databases. Public records like property ownership and court documents are legitimately available and difficult to remove.

The goal isn't perfect privacy but rather reducing your exposure to a manageable level. Focus first on removing information from the most visible sites that appear in Google searches. Then tackle the larger data brokers that sell detailed marketing profiles. Accept that some companies will resist or ignore your requests.

Think of privacy protection like home security. You can't make your home completely impenetrable, but you can add enough barriers to deter most threats. Lock the doors, close the windows, and install an alarm system. Similarly with privacy, opt out of major brokers, limit data sharing, and monitor for new exposures.