A data broker (also known as an information product company) is an organization that makes money by collecting your personal information, analyzing it, and licensing it out to be used by other companies for things like marketing purposes.
Data providers gather data from many different sources to create a profile of who you are. This profile includes things like your interests, hobbies, demographics, and even the products you use. Generally, data broker companies only deal with customers to collect information. A few of the top data brokerage companies are Epsilon, Acxiom, and Experian, but there are many data brokerages worldwide that make a hefty profit from aggregating and distributing consumers’ personal data.
Read more…
Source: McAfee
Related:
- New AirSnitch attack bypasses Wi-Fi encryption in homes, offices, and enterprises
February 26, 2026
It’s hard to overstate the role that Wi-Fi plays in virtually every facet of life. The organization that shepherds the wireless protocol says that more than 48 billion Wi-Fi-enabled devices have shipped since it debuted in the late 1990s. New research shows that behaviors that occur at the very lowest levels of the network stack make ...
- Conduent data breach gets bigger, more than 25 million people across the US are now affected
February 26, 2026
A ransomware attack that caused a massive data breach for one of the largest government contractors in the U.S. keeps expanding. In early February, it was reported that 10 million people were impacted by the Conduent breach a year after it was discovered. Now though, it’s been revealed that the breach may affect more than 25 ...
- Predator spyware allows full sensor surveillance on iPhones
February 24, 2026
Apple may have introduced colored status bar indicators in iOS 14 to alert users when the camera or microphone is active, but experts have warned this does not stop all malware. Spyware developed by Intellexa and Cytrox, dubbed Predator, can operate on compromised iOS devices without showing any camera or microphone indicators. Predator bypasses the indicator ...
- Age verification vendor Persona left frontend exposed
February 20, 2026
Researchers investigating Discord’s age-verification checks say they discovered an exposed frontend belonging to Persona, the identity-verification vendor used by Discord. It revealed a far more expansive surveillance and financial intelligence stack than a simple “teen safety” tool. A short while ago we reported that Discord will limit profiles to teen-appropriate mode until you verify your age. ...
- ShinyHunters demands $1.5M not to leak Vegas casino and resort chain data
February 20, 2026
Las Vegas hotel and casino giant Wynn Resorts appears to be the latest victim of data-grabbing and extortion gang ShinyHunters. On Friday, the cybercrime crew listed the hospitality company on its blog, claiming to have stolen more than 800,000 records containing employees’ Social Security numbers and other private details. The extortionists set a February 23 deadline ...
- Data breach at fintech giant Figure affects close to a million customers
February 18, 2026
The data breach that hit blockchain-based lending giant Figure affected nearly a million customers, according to a security researcher. Last week, Figure confirmed a data breach allowed hackers to steal “a limited number of files” from its systems. The company did not provide specifics on what kind of data was stolen nor say how many customers ...