Data Brokers: Who Has Your Email and How to Opt Out
Data brokers buy, sell, and trade your email address without your knowledge. Learn which companies have your information and follow our step-by-step opt-out guide to remove yourself from their databases.
Your email address is being bought and sold right now. As you read this sentence, data brokers are packaging your contact information alongside hundreds of data points about you—your age, income, shopping habits, political leanings, health conditions—and selling it to the highest bidder. This isn't a dystopian future; it's the present reality of the $250 billion data broker industry.
In this guide, we'll expose who these data brokers are, explain exactly how they obtained your email address, and provide you with actionable steps to opt out and reclaim your privacy.
What Are Data Brokers?
Data brokers are companies that collect, aggregate, and sell personal information about individuals. They operate largely in the shadows, building detailed profiles on billions of people without their knowledge or meaningful consent. Your email address is often the linchpin that ties all their data together—the unique identifier that connects your online shopping habits to your real-world address, your social media activity to your credit history.
The data broker industry includes thousands of companies operating worldwide. Acxiom claims to have data on 2.5 billion consumers globally. Oracle Data Cloud maintains profiles on over 300 million Americans. Experian (beyond credit reports) operates one of the largest marketing databases. The average American adult has their information held by over 200 data brokers.
When you enter your email address on a website, it often triggers a cascade of data sharing. That single email might be sold 12-15 times within the first week, spreading across dozens of databases.
How Data Brokers Get Your Email Address
Understanding how your email ends up in broker databases helps you prevent future exposure. Data brokers collect emails through multiple methods.
Public Records
Data brokers scrape government databases for voter registration records (which include email in some states), property records and deed transfers, court records and legal filings, business registration documents, and professional license databases.
Commercial Sources
Your email is collected through store loyalty programs and rewards cards, warranty registrations, online purchases and transactions, subscription services, and contest and sweepstakes entries.
Social Media Scraping
Despite terms of service prohibiting it, brokers harvest publicly visible email addresses on profiles, information from data breaches of social platforms, and connections between your accounts through shared identifiers.
Data Partnerships
Companies legally (or quasi-legally) share data through partner marketing agreements buried in privacy policies, app SDK data collection, website cookies and tracking pixels, and credit card transaction data.
The Major Data Brokers You Should Know
Not all data brokers are equally important. Here are the most influential players—the ones most likely to have your email and personal information.
Tier 1 - The Giants: LiveRamp (Acxiom), Oracle Data Cloud (BlueKai), Experian Marketing Services, and Epsilon are the largest brokers with the most comprehensive databases.
Tier 2 - People Search Sites: Spokeo, BeenVerified, Whitepages, Intelius, PeopleFinder, TruePeopleSearch, and FastPeopleSearch focus specifically on compiling and selling personal contact information.
Tier 3 - Marketing Data Providers: ZoomInfo (B2B contacts), Clearbit (email enrichment), FullContact (identity resolution), and Pipl (deep web people search) specialize in linking email addresses to detailed profiles.
Step-by-Step Opt-Out Guide
Removing yourself from data broker databases is time-consuming but achievable. Here's a systematic approach.
Phase 1: Preparation
Before you start submitting opt-out requests, gather what you'll need. Create a dedicated opt-out email address—use a temporary email from TempMailSpot or create a dedicated address just for opt-out confirmations. Document your current information including addresses, phone numbers, and email variations. Take screenshots of your listings as evidence. Prepare a tracking spreadsheet with columns for data broker name, opt-out URL, date submitted, confirmation received, and verification date.
Phase 2: Submit Tier 1 Opt-Outs
Start with the major data brokers. Their databases feed hundreds of smaller brokers, so this creates a cascade effect. For LiveRamp, visit liveramp.com/opt_out, enter your information, complete verification, and await email confirmation. For Oracle Data Cloud, email dataprivacy@oracle.com with your full name and email addresses to remove. For Experian Marketing Services, go to experian.com/privacy/opting_out. For Epsilon, visit legal.epsilon.com/us/consumer-preference-center.
Phase 3: People Search Sites
Work through the major people search sites systematically. For Spokeo, find your listing, copy the URL, go to spokeo.com/optout, paste the listing URL, enter your email for confirmation, and click the confirmation link. For BeenVerified, visit beenverified.com/app/optout/search, search for and locate your record, submit the removal request, and confirm via email. Similar processes exist for Whitepages, Intelius, TruePeopleSearch, and FastPeopleSearch.
Phase 4: Verification and Maintenance
The work doesn't end with submission. Data brokers continually acquire new information. 30 days later, revisit each site to confirm removal and re-submit any that still show your information. Every 3-6 months, repeat searches on people search sites as your information may reappear from new data sources.
Automating the Opt-Out Process
Manual opt-out is effective but exhausting. Several services automate this process:
DeleteMe (Abine) - Monitors and removes from 750+ data brokers with quarterly removal sweeps. Pricing is $129/year for individuals.
Kanary - Focuses on people search sites with real-time monitoring and removal. Pricing is $89/year.
Privacy Duck - Comprehensive manual removal service that handles sites that resist automated removal with premium pricing for white-glove service.
Optery - Covers 200+ data broker sites with a free tier available with limited monitoring and paid tiers for automatic removal.
The investment may be worthwhile if you value your time or face particular privacy concerns.
Legal Rights for Data Removal
Depending on where you live, you may have legal rights that strengthen your opt-out requests.
CCPA (California) - Right to know what personal data is collected, right to delete personal data, right to opt out of data sales. Brokers must respond within 45 days.
VCDPA (Virginia) - Similar rights for Virginia residents, effective January 1, 2023.
Colorado Privacy Act - Consumer rights similar to CCPA, effective July 1, 2023.
GDPR (European Union) - Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"), 30-day response requirement, significant fines for non-compliance. Cite GDPR Article 17 in your requests.
Prevention: Stopping Future Collection
Removing your data is only half the battle. You must also stem the flow of new information.
Use Temporary Email for All Signups - This is the single most effective prevention measure. Services like TempMailSpot give you disposable email addresses that can't be connected to your identity. Use temp email for newsletter signups, free trial registrations, contest entries, downloading gated content, forum registrations, WiFi signups, and any site you don't fully trust.
Limit Real Email Usage - Reserve your real email for financial institutions, healthcare providers, government services, close personal contacts, and employers and professional contacts.
Additional Prevention Strategies - Opt out preemptively using the Direct Marketing Association's choice portal at dmachoice.org. Freeze credit reports to prevent credit-based data broker access. Register on the National Do Not Call Registry. Use privacy-focused services like email aliases. Read privacy policies and look for data sharing disclosures before signing up.
Data brokers profit from your personal information without your meaningful consent. Your email address—seemingly innocuous—serves as the skeleton key that unlocks your entire digital profile. While the $250 billion industry won't disappear overnight, you can take control of your piece of it.
Start with the major brokers. Work systematically through people search sites. Consider automation services if your time is limited. Most importantly, stop feeding the machine by using temporary email addresses for everyday signups.
Your privacy is worth the effort. Every opt-out request, every temporary email used instead of your real address, chips away at the surveillance infrastructure that treats your personal information as a commodity.
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