The Data Broker Directory

The Scale of the Problem

The EFF and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse have identified over 750 unique data broker groups operating across U.S. state registries alone. The California Data Broker Registry lists over 500 registered companies. The global data broker market was valued at approximately $294 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach over $448 billion by 2031.

These companies collect, aggregate, analyze, and sell information about you, often without your knowledge or meaningful consent. They know where you live, where you've been, what you buy, what medications you take, how you drive, who your relatives are, how much you earn, and whether you've ever been evicted, arrested, or filed for bankruptcy.

This directory is the result of extensive research drawing from state data broker registries (California, Vermont, Texas, Oregon), the EFF/Privacy Rights Clearinghouse unified database, DataBrokersWatch.org, the Big-Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List (BADBOOL), Optery, DeleteMe, IntelTechniques, investigative journalism, enforcement records, and corporate filings. We have identified over 1,700 unique named entities operating in the data broker ecosystem.

For each major company, we've documented what data they collect, where they get it, who they sell it to, any enforcement actions or scandals, and available opt-out procedures. The directory is organized into the following categories:

Directory Categories

1. Consumer Data Giants

The largest and most powerful data brokers in the world, including Acxiom/LiveRamp, Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, LexisNexis, Data Axle, Epsilon, Nielsen, Thomson Reuters, and Oracle Data Cloud. These companies maintain profiles on hundreds of millions of consumers and serve as the backbone of the entire data broker ecosystem.

2. People Search & Background Check Sites

Over 100 consumer-facing sites that let anyone look up your name, address, phone number, relatives, and more. Includes ownership maps of the major corporate networks, the data supply chain explaining where they get your information, and FTC enforcement actions against the industry.

3. Location & Geolocation Data

Companies that track your physical movements through your phone. Covers SDK-based location harvesting, geofencing, government purchases of commercial location data, and the FTC enforcement actions and outright bans that followed.

4. Surveillance & Government Contractors

Companies that sell data and surveillance technology to government agencies, often enabling warrantless tracking. Covers domestic surveillance contractors, social media intelligence brokers, license plate recognition networks, and the international spyware industry.

5. Financial Data Brokers

Companies that aggregate and sell your banking, transaction, and credit data beyond the Big Three credit bureaus. Covers open-banking data aggregators, specialty consumer reporting agencies, and business credit data providers.

6. Health & Pharmaceutical Data

Companies that buy, sell, and broker your medical information. Covers clinical data aggregators, pharmaceutical analytics, health IT platforms, the mental health data market, and DOJ and FTC enforcement actions against the industry.

7. Vehicle & Driving Data

Your car is watching you. Covers telematics and driving behavior data, connected car data brokers, license plate recognition networks, and state attorney general enforcement actions against automakers and insurers.

8. Employment & Tenant Screening

Companies that decide whether you get a job or an apartment. Covers employment background check providers, income and employment verification databases, tenant screening algorithms, the DOJ’s landmark algorithmic rent-fixing case, and the evolving regulatory landscape.

9. Advertising, Marketing & Identity Data

The ad-tech ecosystem that tracks you across the web. Covers data management platforms, identity graph providers, B2B data brokers, and the real-time bidding marketplace that broadcasts your data billions of times per day.

10. Insurance Data Brokers

Companies that determine your insurance rates and coverage. Covers claims databases, medical underwriting repositories, property and geospatial intelligence, telematics and driving behavior scoring, and the growing use of AI in insurance pricing.

11. Political Data & Voter Analytics

Companies that profile you for political campaigns. Covers voter file aggregators, political data vendors across both parties, predictive modeling firms, major data breaches, and the legacy of Cambridge Analytica.

12. Telecom & Communications Data

How your phone carrier sells your data. Covers the carrier location data scandal, FCC enforcement actions, location aggregators, prison telecom surveillance, and the ongoing constitutional challenges.

13. Education & Student Data

Companies that profit from children’s data. Covers student information systems, standardized testing data sales, ed-tech surveillance tools, school monitoring software, student marketing pipelines, and FERPA’s enforcement gaps.

14. Social Media Aggregators & Web Scrapers

Companies that vacuum up your public posts and profiles. Covers social listening platforms, OSINT tools sold to government agencies, web scraping infrastructure, and the legal battles over public data collection.

15. Retail & Loyalty Program Data

Your shopping habits are for sale. Covers loyalty card analytics companies, receipt-scanning apps, transaction data platforms, and the rise of retail media networks where retailers monetize purchase data through targeted advertising.

16. Real Estate & Property Data

Companies that know every property you’ve owned, every mortgage, every tax assessment. Covers property data aggregators, MLS data providers, real estate analytics platforms, and the consolidation of the industry through major acquisitions.

17. International Data Brokers

Data brokers operating outside the United States, covering 30+ countries. Includes credit bureaus, surveillance firms, and data aggregators across the UK, EU, India, China, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and more. Also covers the global regulatory landscape.

How to Fight Back

California Residents: Use DROP

California's Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform (DROP) launched January 1, 2026 at consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov. It allows California residents to submit a single deletion request to all registered data brokers. Data brokers must begin processing requests by August 2026. This is the first tool of its kind in the U.S. and it's free.

Automated Removal Services

No service achieves 100% removal. Consumer Reports found Optery achieved 68% removal and EasyOptOuts 65% after 4 months. Most brokers re-list data within 3-12 months, so ongoing monitoring is essential.

DIY Opt-Out Resources

Ongoing Protection

Most brokers re-list data within 3-12 months. Manual opt-outs must be repeated regularly. Automated services monitor and re-submit on ongoing cycles (typically every 1-4 months). For maximum protection:

Research Sources

This directory draws from the following primary sources:

The Bottom Line

The data broker industry operates largely in the shadows. The companies listed in this directory represent only the most visible layer of an ecosystem that touches virtually every person with a digital footprint. Many of the most significant players, including upstream data suppliers, real-time bidding networks, and credit header data resellers, operate entirely behind the scenes, invisible to the consumers whose lives they monetize.

The good news is that the regulatory landscape is finally catching up. California's DELETE Act and DROP platform, the FTC's shift to structural remedies (banning data sales rather than just fining), state data broker registration requirements spreading to Texas and Oregon, and the CFPB's consideration of credit header data reclassification all represent meaningful progress. But regulation alone won't solve the problem. Awareness, knowing who has your data and demanding they stop, remains your most powerful tool.

This directory is updated regularly as new information becomes available. Last updated: February 2026.