Hackers are pretty scary. Amoral, hooded figures with magical computer skills that can break into anything within minutes.
At least that is what most of us think of when we hear the term “hacker.” It is not exactly a realistic or particularly representative image, but, at the same time, it is not too far off the mark either.
What many people do not realize is just how much hackers can learn about you from a data broker file, detailed profiles compiled from your personal information collected and sold by data brokers. This hidden industry fuels much of what hackers use to target individuals today.
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Illustration of a person’s personal data. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What is a data broker, and why should you care?
When most people hear the term “data broker,” on the other hand, they draw a blank. Is it a person or company that buys and sells data? Basically, yes. Data brokers collect, sort, analyze, package and sell access to personal information. Whose personal information? Anyone’s and everyone’s, including yours.
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Illustration of a person’s personal data. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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What kinds of personal information do they deal in?
Here is a list of possible data points you, random companies, your worst enemy, your neighbors and, yes, hackers can find in a data broker file:
- Full name
- Past legal names
- Known aliases
- Social media handles
- Gender
- Sexual preferences
- Date of birth or age
- Social Security number (SSN)
- Current and past home addresses
- Current and past phone numbers
- Current, past and secret email addresses
- Political preferences and affiliations
- Occupation
- Current employer
- Employment history
- Business associates
- Education
- Marital status
- Marriage and divorce records
- Family status (number and ages of children)
- Relatives
- Property information
- Vehicle registration
- Assets
- Financial information
- Bankruptcies, judgments and liens
- Licenses (drivers license, firearms permits, etc.)
- Court records
- Criminal records
- Mugshots
- Sex-offender status
- Health history
- Location data
- IP information
- Device information (phone, tablet and computer models)
- Web browser information
- Shopping habits
- Interests and hobbies.
Quite the list, is it not? It is not exhaustive; there is more that data brokers collect and more yet that they and their customers can infer from data points like these. What exactly a given data broker has will depend on which category it falls into.
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Illustration of a person’s personal data. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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Types of data brokers: Who’s collecting and selling your information?
The most visible data brokers are commonly known as people search sites or people finder sites. These are the sites that show up when you Google yourself, or a hacker Googles you. They are just the tip of the iceberg, though. There are other data brokers that do not bother indexing individual profiles with search engines, preferring instead to deal with other companies and even governments directly. These are the other major types of data brokers, in addition to people search sites:
Marketing data brokers focus more on your browsing habits, past purchases and interests. They are responsible for “personalized marketing” as well as helping other companies target you with those surprisingly relevant ads you see online.
Recruitment data brokers collect and process personal information to offer background screening services to organizations evaluating job candidates or performing background checks before making an offer. Unfortunately, although illegal, there is nothing actually stopping unscrupulous employers from using the much less regulated and reliable people search sites for the same purposes.
Risk mitigation brokers aggregate a variety of background, criminal, property and other information to provide assessment reports to various investment and business companies. The information they collect is aimed at helping such companies manage risk in taking on new business.
Financial information brokers collect various personal finance and background information for credit companies and banks to calculate your credit score and may influence your eligibility to get loans and lines of credit.
Health information data brokers collect information about your general health and sell it to companies in healthcare and related fields. This information can be used to target you with health product ads and even set your insurance premiums.
Hackers are most likely to use people search sites, though; they are easily accessible, eminently searchable, relatively cheap (with trial offers for as little as a dollar) and do not ask any questions. Other data brokers may also sell personal information to hackers, but they tend to sell profiles in bulk.
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Want your data taken off this market?
It is perfectly normal to want no part in any of this. Unfortunately, there is no federal law on the books in the U.S. that would either prevent this kind of data trade or give you an easy, legally enforced way to opt out.
The good news is that, thanks to an incomplete patchwork of state laws, personal information removal services can approach hundreds of individual data brokers on your behalf with legally binding data-removal requests.
While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap — and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.
Kurt’s key takeaways
It is easy to feel overwhelmed when you realize just how much of your personal information is out there, and how many different players are collecting, selling and using it. But knowing how data brokers operate is the first step to taking back control. Whether it is people search sites or the less visible brokers working behind the scenes, your data is valuable, and you deserve to know who has it and what they are doing with it. The good news is, there are tools and services out there that can help you clean up your digital footprint and protect your privacy. So, do not just sit back and hope for the best — take action and make your data work for you, not against you.
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