How Data Brokers Build Your Profile

10,000 data points on 300 million Americans - here's exactly how they do it

State of Surveillance Editorial Team

Acxiom claims to have profiles on 2.5 billion people worldwide, with over 3,000 data points per person. Experian's ConsumerView database contains thousands of data points on more than 300 million Americans. These aren't vague estimates - they're the companies' own marketing claims. The data broker industry is worth $434 billion in 2025, and you're the product.

Understanding how data brokers build your profile isn't just academic curiosity. Insurance companies use this data to price your premiums. Employers use it for background checks. Political campaigns use it to target you. And the FTC has acknowledged that tracing how a data broker obtained your data is "virtually impossible." [1]

Here's exactly how they do it.

The Data Sources: Where Your Profile Comes From

Public Records: The Foundation

Data brokers start with the paper trail you leave through official channels:

  • Vital records: Birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce records, death records
  • Voter registration: Name, address, party affiliation, voting history
  • Court records: Civil cases, criminal convictions, bankruptcies
  • Property records: Home ownership, mortgage amounts, property values
  • Motor vehicle records: License information, vehicle registration
  • Professional licenses: From hairdressers to doctors to fishing permits

This data is legally available because it's public record. Data brokers simply automated the collection at scale. What once required visiting a courthouse now feeds directly into databases through government data-sharing agreements. [2]

Commercial Sources: Your Purchase History

Every transaction leaves a trail. Data broker Nielsen claims to collect:

  • 80% of all credit card transactions
  • 30% of all debit card transactions
  • Purchase history across 90+ million households
  • Data from 18,000 retailers

Loyalty programs, rewards cards, and store accounts aren't just about discounts - they're data harvesting operations. When you scan your grocery store loyalty card, that purchase history gets sold. Magazine subscriptions, catalog orders, warranty registrations - it all flows into your profile. [3]

Online Tracking: The Digital Exhaust

Websites and apps harvest data through:

  • Cookies and trackers: Recording browsing behavior across sites
  • Social media: Public posts, likes, followers, check-ins
  • Mobile apps: Location data, app usage patterns, permissions
  • Search queries: What you search reveals what you want
  • Email interactions: Newsletter opens, link clicks

Data brokers don't just collect this data directly - they buy it from apps, websites, and advertising networks. That "free" mobile game selling your location data? It ends up in broker databases.

Data Broker Networks: They Trade With Each Other

Here's where it gets murky. Data brokers use other data brokers as sources. They buy, sell, and trade datasets, combining fragments into comprehensive profiles. The FTC found this practice makes tracing data origins essentially impossible. [1]

They also purchase breached data. Information from data breaches ends up on the dark web, where it can be acquired and cross-referenced with legitimate data to fill gaps in profiles.

The Major Players

Acxiom (LiveRamp)

Acxiom purports to have data from 2.5 billion different people globally. In 2012, they claimed 1,500 data points per person. By 2023, that number exceeded 3,000. [4]

Their clients include Spotify, Meta, Hulu, and Yahoo. Acxiom sells data on whether an individual has an "online search propensity" for certain ailments or prescriptions - meaning your health-related Google searches can follow you into marketing databases.

Experian

Best known for credit reports, Experian's ConsumerView database goes far beyond credit scores. It includes thousands of data points on 300+ million Americans and 126 million households: demographics, consumer behavior, interests, credit information, and lifestyle data. [5]

Experian categorizes consumers into segments with names like "American Royalty" (wealthy, influential couples in prestigious suburbs) and "X-tra Needy" or "Small Town Shallow Pockets." These categories determine how companies market to you - and potentially how much they charge you.

LexisNexis

LexisNexis Risk Solutions processes over 270 million transactions per hour for identity verification and fraud detection. Their health scoring product calculates expected healthcare costs for individuals based on purchase activities and consumer data. [6]

When an insurance company wants to estimate your health risks without asking you directly, LexisNexis provides the data.

What's In Your Profile

Data broker profiles typically include: [2]

Basic identifiers: Name, aliases, date of birth, Social Security number, addresses (current and historical), phone numbers, email addresses

Demographics: Age, race, gender, height, weight, marital status, household composition, number of children

Economic status: Income estimates, net worth, credit score ranges, investment habits, debt levels

Lifestyle data: Religious affiliation, political affiliation, hobbies, interests, product preferences, magazine subscriptions

Life events: Getting married, buying a home, having children, divorcing, sending kids to college - these "life-event triggers" are particularly valuable for marketers

Health-related inferences: Based on purchases, searches, and behaviors

Observed vs. Inferred Data: The Dangerous Guesswork

Data broker profiles contain two types of information: [3]

Observed data: Actual facts about you - your address, your purchase at a specific store, your voter registration.

Inferred data: Conclusions drawn from observed data. If you visit a website about treating high cholesterol, a data broker might assume you have high cholesterol. If you buy plus-size clothing, they might infer your weight range.

The problem? You can't tell which data is observed and which is inferred. An incorrect inference can follow you through the system, affecting insurance rates, loan approvals, and more - and you'd never know it was based on a guess.

How This Data Gets Used Against You

Insurance Pricing

According to an NPR and ProPublica investigation, health insurers collaborate with data brokers to track consumers' data points including race, education level, TV habits, marital status, net worth, social media posts, ZIP code, and credit score. [7]

Patient advocates warn that using unverified "lifestyle" data to make medical assumptions could lead insurers to raise rates based on false information or discriminate against anyone tagged as high cost.

The discrimination risk is real. Black women are more likely to experience pregnancy complications than white women. Insurers might conclude that a Black, recently married woman is likely to cost them more. Even without explicit race data, they might draw similar conclusions for women who purchase Black hair-care products or tweet about certain television shows.

Employment Decisions

Background check companies draw on data broker information. Your profile might influence whether you get an interview, what salary you're offered, or whether you pass a background check for a sensitive position.

Political Targeting

Political campaigns use data broker profiles to micro-target voters. They know your party affiliation, voting history, likely issues you care about, and the messages most likely to motivate you - all purchased from data brokers.

Financial Services

Loan decisions, interest rates, and credit limits can be influenced by data broker information beyond your credit report. The correlation between ZIP code and creditworthiness, for example, might affect your financial options.

FTC Enforcement: Too Little, Too Late

In January 2024, the FTC announced settlements with data brokers X-Mode Social/Outlogic and InMarket Media for collecting location information through mobile app SDKs and selling it to third parties. The brokers failed to remove information that could reveal visits to sensitive locations like healthcare providers and reproductive health clinics. [8]

In February 2024, the FTC survived a motion to dismiss its complaint against data broker Kochava on similar allegations.

These cases represent a tiny fraction of a $434 billion industry. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse identified at least 750 unique data brokerages operating in the United States in 2025. [9]

The Regulatory Landscape

The United States has four data broker registries - California, Oregon, Vermont, and Texas - with four more in development (New Jersey, Delaware, Michigan, Alaska). [10]

In October 2025, California's Governor signed SB 361: Defending Californians' Data Act, expanding the 2023 Delete Act. It requires data brokers to disclose what sensitive data they collect and integrate with the Data Removal and Opt-Out Platform (DROP).

The "Health and Location Data Protection Act of 2024" would give the FTC $1 billion for enforcement and create a right to sue data brokers for violations. As of late 2025, it hasn't passed.

Washington state enacted the My Health My Data Act (MHMDA), the nation's first privacy law protecting personal health data not covered by HIPAA.

What You Can Do

Opt Out of Major Data Brokers

Most major data brokers offer opt-out mechanisms, though they make it deliberately inconvenient. Our data broker opt-out guide covers the process for the largest brokers.

DataPurge cuts through the friction, it generates legally-backed deletion requests citing CCPA, GDPR, and state privacy laws, then sends them with one click. Free, open-source, and nothing is stored.

For comprehensive coverage, see our people search site master list with opt-out links for hundreds of sites.

Limit Data Generation

  • Skip loyalty programs or use them with a dedicated email and fake birthday
  • Pay with cash for purchases you don't want tracked
  • Use privacy browsers and block trackers - see our browser privacy settings guide
  • Audit app permissions and revoke unnecessary access to location, contacts, etc.
  • Use burner emails for signups that don't need your real identity

Reduce Your Public Record Footprint

  • Consider a trust or LLC for property ownership to keep your name off public records
  • Use a PO Box for voter registration where legally permitted
  • Be selective about professional licenses - some are searchable online

Use Deletion Services

Services like DeleteMe, Kanary, and Privacy Duck automate opt-out requests across dozens of data brokers. They're not perfect, but they reduce the manual burden significantly. See our guide to deleting yourself from the internet.

Freeze Your Credit

Credit freezes at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion prevent new credit inquiries. This doesn't stop data brokers from collecting information, but it limits one avenue of exploitation.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Complete removal from data broker databases is impossible. The industry is too large, too interconnected, and too persistent. New data brokers appear constantly. Old ones restore deleted data from partner databases. Public records remain public.

What you can do is reduce your exposure, make tracking harder, and understand who's profiling you. The 10,000 data points Acxiom claims to have on you didn't appear overnight - they accumulated over years of data harvesting. Stopping the flow won't erase the past, but it limits the future.

The data broker industry exists because your information has value. Every purchase tracked, every location logged, every search recorded - it all feeds profiles that companies pay billions to access. Understanding that machinery is the first step toward resisting it.

Related Guides

References

  1. Malwarebytes. "Data brokers: Who is selling your data and how to protect it." malwarebytes.com
  2. Wikipedia. "Data broker." wikipedia.org
  3. Tom Kemp. "A Closer Look at Data Brokers' Sources of Data." July 2023. tomkemp.ai
  4. Built In. "10 Top Data Broker Companies." builtin.com
  5. OneRep. "Top Five Largest Data Brokers In America: The Hidden Impact On Privacy And Security." onerep.com
  6. ProPublica. "Everything We Know About What Data Brokers Know About You." propublica.org
  7. NPR. "Health Insurers Tap Data Brokers To Help Predict Costs." npr.org
  8. Loeb & Loeb LLP. "Sensitive Data Takes Center Stage, and Other Trends We're Watching in 2024." loeb.com
  9. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. "Data Brokers." privacyrights.org
  10. Monda. "Data Broker Registries in the US 2025." monda.ai