Data Brokers and Political Campaigns: How They Know | State of Surveillance

TL;DR: Political campaigns don't just know your name and address. They know your shopping habits, religious beliefs, magazine subscriptions, estimated income, likelihood to own a gun, and psychological profile. They buy this data from brokers, companies that compile information from hundreds of sources and sell it to anyone who pays. In 2020, political groups spent approximately $23 million purchasing data from 37 different brokers. In 2024, political ad spending reached $12.32 billion, a 30% increase from 2020. There is currently no federal law regulating this industry. Campaigns know more about you than you know about them.

How Voter Targeting Works

Every political campaign starts with a voter file, the list of registered voters in their district, available for purchase from state election offices. This gives them names, addresses, party registration (in most states), and voting history (whether you voted, not how).

But that's just the foundation.

Step 1: Buy the Voter File

State voter files include:

Full name and address
Date of birth
Party registration (where applicable)
Voting history (which elections you voted in)
Precinct and district information

This tells a campaign who votes consistently and who skips off-year elections. It tells them which party you registered with. But it doesn't tell them much about who you are.

Step 2: Enhance with Consumer Data

The campaign then turns to data brokers to "enhance" the voter file. The broker matches voter records against their own databases and appends hundreds of additional data points:

Category	Example Data Points
Demographics	Age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, children
Economic	Estimated income, net worth, homeowner status, credit range
Consumer behavior	Shopping preferences, brand affinities, purchase history
Lifestyle	Hobbies, magazine subscriptions, club memberships
Religious	Religious affiliation, denomination, church attendance
Political	Donation history, issue preferences, petition signatures
Location	GPS tracking, frequent locations, travel patterns

According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), these dossiers can include "hundreds or even thousands of data points about us, including our religious beliefs... or even inferences about us based on what our friends are reading or where they're going."

Step 3: Build Predictive Models

With enhanced data, campaigns build models that predict:

Support score: How likely are you to vote for their candidate?
Turnout score: How likely are you to vote at all?
Persuadability: Can your mind be changed?
Issue responsiveness: Which issues will motivate you?

These models determine who gets contacted, what message they receive, and through which channel.

Step 4: Target and Deliver

A high-support, low-turnout voter gets turnout messaging: "Make sure you vote Tuesday!" A persuadable moderate gets issue-focused ads tailored to their predicted concerns. A strong supporter of the opposition gets... nothing. Why remind them to vote?

Different voters in the same household can receive entirely different messages based on their individual profiles.

The Major Data Brokers

Several companies dominate the political data market:

Aristotle

Aristotle is considered the industry's most established source of voter and consumer data. They offer:

A National Voter List of 235+ million voters
A National Donor List tracking 215+ million donations
A New Mover list of 39+ million people who recently relocated

They've serviced major political campaigns, PACs, corporations, and grassroots organizations across the country and internationally.

L2

L2 specializes in voter data combined with consumer and demographic information. They provide:

Voter file management and enhancement
Modeling and targeting services
Real-time voter registration updates

TargetSmart

Primarily serving Democratic campaigns, TargetSmart offers:

Voter file data nationwide
Consumer data overlays
Predictive modeling and analytics

i360

Backed by Koch Industries, i360 serves Republican campaigns and conservative causes with:

Voter data and consumer profiles
Digital advertising platforms
Field organizing tools

Consumer Data Brokers

Beyond political-specific firms, campaigns also purchase from general consumer data brokers like:

Acxiom (now LiveRamp)
Experian Marketing Services
Oracle Data Cloud
Epsilon

These companies compile data from credit applications, loyalty programs, public records, and countless other sources, then sell access to anyone, including political campaigns.

The Money Involved

Political data is big business:

2020: Political groups spent approximately $23 million purchasing data and services from 37 different data brokers
2024: Total political ad spending reached $12.32 billion, a 30% increase from 2020
Digital spending: A 156% rise in spending on digital platforms from 2020 to 2024
Connected TV: $1.3 billion projected for "connected television" political ads in 2024 alone

Much of this spending goes toward data-driven targeting. The more precisely a campaign can target its message, the more efficiently it can spend its advertising budget.

What They Actually Know About You

In 2024, Cards Against Humanity (the card game company) released an experiment demonstrating how much information PACs and Super PACs can legally purchase about individual voters. The results alarmed privacy advocates.

A typical enhanced voter profile might include:

Verified Data

Full name, address, phone number, email
Age, gender, ethnicity
Party registration and voting history
Donation history to candidates and causes
Property records and home value
Vehicle registration

Inferred Data

Estimated income and net worth
Religious affiliation and church attendance
Gun ownership likelihood
Stance on specific issues (abortion, immigration, healthcare)
Media consumption habits
Psychological profile (openness, conscientiousness, etc.)
Persuadability score

Location Data

Frequent locations (home, work, gym, church)
Travel patterns
Attendance at political events, protests, or rallies

This data can be used to identify not just what you believe, but how you can be influenced.

The Government Loophole

The same data brokers that sell to political campaigns also sell to government agencies, creating a constitutional concern.

According to a 2024 analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice, agencies like the Department of Defense and local law enforcement have routinely purchased location and behavioral data from brokers. Because the data is technically available on the open market, the government argues it doesn't need a warrant.

This is the "data broker loophole": the Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable government searches, but if the government simply buys information that's already for sale, courts have been reluctant to call it a search.

The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act aims to close this loophole, but hasn't passed.

The Regulatory Vacuum

There is currently no federal law regulating the data broker industry.

Data brokers operate in a gray zone:

They're not covered by financial privacy laws (they're not banks)
They're not covered by health privacy laws (they're not healthcare providers)
They're not covered by communications privacy laws (they're not telecoms)
General consumer protection laws apply only to deceptive practices, not data collection itself

Legislative Attempts

Several bills have been proposed:

DELETE Act: Introduced by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), this would create an FTC portal for individuals to submit one-time opt-out requests. Data brokers would have 31 days to delete personal information.
American Data Privacy and Protection Act: Proposed comprehensive federal privacy legislation that would cover data brokers, but hasn't passed.
Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act: Would prohibit government agencies from purchasing data that would otherwise require a warrant to obtain.

None of these have become law. The industry remains largely unregulated.

State-Level Action

Some states have acted:

California: The California DELETE Act created the Data Broker Registry and allows consumers to submit deletion requests
Vermont: Requires data brokers to register with the state
Other states: Various consumer privacy laws indirectly affect data brokers

But state-level regulation creates a patchwork. A broker can still collect and sell data on residents of unregulated states.

The Cambridge Analytica Connection

Cambridge Analytica demonstrated what happens when psychological profiling meets voter data. The company harvested data from up to 87 million Facebook profiles and combined it with voter files to build psychographic profiles, categorizing voters by personality type and targeting them with messages designed to exploit their psychological vulnerabilities.

Cambridge Analytica collapsed in 2018 after investigations in multiple countries. But the techniques it pioneered didn't disappear. The same capabilities exist across the data broker ecosystem:

Consumer behavior data reveals psychological patterns
Social media activity indicates personality traits
Purchase history correlates with political leanings
Location data shows community affiliations

Any campaign with enough budget can assemble similar profiles using legal data purchases.

Protecting Yourself

You can't fully opt out of voter targeting, campaigns will always have access to public voter files. But you can limit how much additional data is attached to your profile:

Opt Out of Data Brokers

Request removal from major brokers individually (Acxiom, Oracle, Epsilon, etc.)
Use California's DELETE Act portal if you're a California resident
Consider paid data removal services that submit requests on your behalf

Limit Data Collection

Avoid loyalty programs and store cards that track purchases
Use cash for purchases you want to keep private
Limit location sharing in phone apps
Review and restrict app permissions regularly

Reduce Digital Footprint

Use privacy-focused browsers and search engines
Decline tracking cookies when possible
Limit social media exposure or use pseudonyms
Don't take online quizzes or personality tests

Be Strategic About Donations

Donations over $200 to federal candidates become public record
Consider whether you want your political contributions visible
Be aware that petition signatures and survey responses may be sold

The Bottom Line

Political campaigns know more about you than most of your friends do. They know what you buy, where you go, what you believe, and how to persuade you. This information is compiled by data brokers who face essentially no federal regulation and sell to anyone who pays.

In 2020, political groups spent $23 million on data broker services. In 2024, total political ad spending hit $12.32 billion. That money is increasingly directed at precision-targeted messaging based on detailed profiles of individual voters.

Cambridge Analytica was treated as a scandal, but its core practice, combining consumer data with voter files to build psychological profiles, is now standard industry practice. The company is gone. The technique persists.

You can take steps to limit your exposure, but you can't fully escape voter targeting. The voter file is public. The enhancement data is for sale. And until Congress acts, nothing about this is illegal.