Guides · updated 2026-08-27
What is a data broker?
A data broker is a business that collects personal information about people it has no direct relationship with, and sells it. That last part is the whole definition: you never signed up, you were never a customer, and the record about you was built from public records, purchases, apps and other brokers. California requires them to register with the state, which is why a public list of them exists at all.
The definition that has legal weight
A data broker collects personal information about people with whom it has no direct relationship, and sells it. California requires those businesses to register with the state, and the register is public. That is why a list exists at all, and why an American privacy argument so often starts in California.
Wholesale and retail
The retail end is the people-search site: your name, age, addresses, relatives and phone numbers on a page anybody can open. The wholesale end sells files to insurers, employers, landlords and marketers, and you never see a page. Both hold you. Only one embarrasses you in public.
Why the same wrong fact follows you around
They buy from each other. An address you left in 2014, or a relative who is not a relative, propagates across sites because one bought the file from another. Removing the page you found does not remove the file it was built from, which is why listings return.
What we publish about them
We track 503 sources, cross-referenced against the state register, and we publish what we know about each one, including whether anybody has ever used the removal route we hold. The directory. Opting out yourself.
Common questions
- What makes a company a data broker rather than an ordinary company?
- The absence of a relationship. A shop holds data about its own customers. A data broker holds and sells data about people who were never its customers and never heard of it. California's registration law turns on exactly that distinction.
- Where does the data come from?
- Public records such as property, court, voter and licence files. Commercial sources such as purchases, warranty cards, subscriptions and apps. And other brokers, because they buy from each other, which is why the same error can appear on a dozen sites.
- Is a people-search site a data broker?
- Usually yes, and it is the retail end of the business: the same records, packaged as a page about you that anyone can read. The wholesale end sells files to companies and never shows you a page at all.
- How many are there?
- Nobody knows the total. California's register is the only public list of consequence, and of the 503 sources we track, 398 appear on it. The remaining 99 never registered, which does not make them harmless.
- Is any of this illegal?
- Largely no, in the United States. Collecting and selling personal data is lawful, with rules attached in some states and stricter rules for consumer reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Your leverage is the deletion right your state gives you, not a general prohibition.
- What can I actually do about it?
- Opt out one by one, or use a single state request where one exists. Both work. Neither is permanent unless a suppression obligation applies, because the sources they rebuild from stay public.
Sources
- California Privacy Protection Agency, the public data broker registry · read 24 August 2026
- Federal Trade Commission, identitytheft.gov · read 27 August 2026
Every figure on this page is either taken from a source above on the date shown, or measured by Cartograph on 2026-08-27. If something here is out of date, write to support@usecartograph.com.