Data brokers aggregate personal information from various sources and compile it into detailed individual profiles that cover multiple aspects of a person’s life. Depending on how their directories are accessed, they can be divided into two categories: public data brokers (also known as people-search sites) and non-public data brokers. While both deal with personal data, their business models, accessibility, and impact on privacy differ significantly.
Public data brokers (people-search sites)
Public data brokers maintain publicly accessible directories that can be searched by anyone.
Key characteristics:
- Accessible to anyone: Information is available to anyone searching for details about you–from former classmates, potential dates, long-lost relatives, and marketers to spammers, scammers, identity thieves, and any other criminals.
- Search engine visibility: Profiles are indexed by search engines like Google, making them easy to find by simply looking up your name. AI tools like ChatGPT can also retrieve data from public data brokers.
- Extensive personal details: Profiles contain a wide range of personal information such as home address and location history, DOB, phone number, email address, place of employment, job title, family ties, and property data—often available for free.
- Paid background reports: Public data brokers also sell comprehensive background reports containing dozens of sensitive data points, including your net worth, estimated income, credit score range, political and religious affiliations, criminal charges, bankruptcies, interests, online preferences, legal records, and more.
- No regulation: Public data brokers are not regulated by FCRA or other legislation. They don’t verify the information they publish which can lead to errors—such as someone else’s criminal record being attached to your profile due to a similar name.
- Increased privacy and security risks: By exposing sensitive personal details, public data brokers increase the risk of phishing, stalking, blackmail, identity theft, and fraud.
Examples:
Whitepages, BeenVerified, Truthfinder, FastPeopleSearch, Spokeo.
Non-public data brokers
Unlike people-search sites, non-public data brokers do not offer publicly open directories. Instead, they operate under a business-to-business (B2B) model, supplying data to organizations for specific purposes such as fraud prevention, identity verification, background screenings, analytics, and risk assessment.
Key characteristics:
- Restricted access: Directories are not openly available online and are used exclusively by businesses, government agencies, and institutions–not individuals.
- Industry-specific data collection: The type of aggregated data varies depending on the broker’s industry (e.g., marketing firms focus on consumer preferences and purchasing habits, credit bureaus track financial history).
- Regulated usage: Many non-public brokers must comply with industry-specific regulations (e.g. FCRA).
- Lower privacy risks for individuals: Since these brokers don’t publicly expose sensitive personal details like home address, income, or political affiliations, they pose a lower risk of scams and fraud.
Examples:
TransUnion, LexisNexis, Acxiom, Epsilon, CoreLogic.
Comparison table: public vs. non-public data brokers
| Public data brokers | Non-public data brokers | |
| Accessibility | Open to everyone | Restricted to businesses and institutions |
| Searchability | Easily found via search engines like Google and AI-tools like ChatGPT | Not publicly searchable |
| Regulation | Unregulated by law, may contain inaccuracies | Often regulated (e.g., FCRA) |
| Privacy risks | High (phishing, stalking, identity theft, fraud) | Lower (no direct public exposure of personal data) |
Conclusion
While both types collect and sell personal information, public data brokers openly expose personal details to anyone, increasing privacy and security risks. In contrast, non-public data brokers operate behind the scenes, supplying businesses with data for credit scoring, fraud prevention, and targeted marketing.
To protect your privacy, consider opting out of public data brokers and monitoring how your personal data is being used by both public and non-public entities.