The Data Broker Exposure Report
We documented the opt-out process and exposed data of 190 data brokers. The findings: 74% publish your home address, 58% expose your phone number, and 47% list your relatives — yet only 4% ask for any ID before removing you. Here’s what the data-broker industry knows about you, and how hard it is to take it back.
Key findings
- Your address is the product. 74% of brokers expose your current or past home address — the single most common data point, ahead of phone numbers (58%) and relatives (47%).
- Opting out isn’t always easy. Only 63% of opt-outs are straightforward; 38% are moderate or hard — multi-step forms, accounts, verification, or duplicate listings.
- Almost no one checks it’s really you. Just 4% of brokers require a government ID to remove you — the same lax verification that lets strangers buy your profile.
- It’s a moving target. Brokers rebuild profiles from fresh public records, so a one-time opt-out doesn’t hold — removal has to be repeated or automated.
What data brokers expose about you
Share of the 190 brokers whose listings include each type of personal information.
How hard the opt-outs are
We rated each broker’s opt-out by the friction a normal person faces. 38% are harder than “easy”.
How long does it take to opt out of a data broker?
By the brokers’ own documentation, most removals take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of weeks once you submit a valid request. The real cost isn’t any single opt-out — it’s the volume: there are hundreds of brokers, each with its own form and waiting period, and they re-list you from fresh public records within weeks. A complete, lasting removal across 190+ sites is realistically an ongoing effort, not a one-afternoon task.
Do data brokers have to delete my data?
In practice, yes — every major broker offers a free opt-out, and in the states with a privacy law they’re legally required to honor deletion requests. But the law only binds brokers above certain size thresholds, and nothing stops them rebuilding your profile from public records afterward — which is why removal has to be repeated or automated.
The hardest brokers to remove from
The brokers we rated “Hard” — the most friction in their opt-out — and what they expose.
| Broker | What it exposes |
|---|---|
| MyLife | A “Reputation Score”, contact info, age, background and public-record details |
| LexisNexis | Contact and address history, relatives, and data used in risk, identity and people-search products |
| LocateFamily | Full name, street address and phone number, listed publicly and indexed by search engines |
| PimEyes | Your face — a reverse face-search engine that finds photos of you across the web from a single uploaded image |
| FaceCheck.ID | Your face linked to photos and profiles across the web (facial-recognition search), often used to identify strangers |
| HomeFacts | Homeowner names, ownership records, sale/purchase history with prices, tax assessments, property characteristics, neighborhood data |
| Buzzfile | Name, job title, company, business address, and professional contact details linked to business records |
The friction that makes people give up
Most brokers don’t outright refuse a removal — they wear you down. Across the 190 we documented, 29% make you confirm a link by email, 5% want you to create an account or sign in, and 4% ask for a government ID. None of that is hard on its own, but multiplied across hundreds of brokers — each with its own form, its own waiting period, and a habit of re-listing you weeks later — it becomes a job most people quit. That’s exactly the gap the industry relies on.
How to remove yourself from data brokers
- Start with the biggest people-search sites — the ones anyone can look you up on (Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified and the like).
- Find each broker’s official opt-out page and submit your listing. Our opt-out guide links the real form for each.
- Confirm any verification step — many require an email click; a few want an ID or an account.
- Re-check every few weeks. Brokers re-list you from fresh public records, so removal isn’t permanent.
- Automate it if doing hundreds by hand isn’t realistic — that’s exactly what a removal service is for.
Key terms
Methodology
This report is based on PersProtect’s own documentation of 190 U.S. data brokers and people-search sites (current as of June 2026). For each broker we recorded the categories of personal data its public listings expose, the mechanics of its official opt-out, and a difficulty rating (Easy / Moderate / Hard) based on the steps a consumer must complete. Exposure percentages reflect the share of brokers whose documented listings include each data class. Brokers change their flows, so figures are a point-in-time snapshot; the per-broker source links are maintained in our data-broker opt-out guide.
Sources & further reading
- FTC — Data Brokers: the federal regulator’s overview of the industry.
- California CPPA Data Broker Registry: brokers registered under the DELETE Act.
- PersProtect data-broker opt-out guide: the per-broker opt-out links behind this report.
- What is a data broker?: how the industry collects and sells your data.
- Open data-broker dataset (GitHub): the full 499-broker list with opt-out links, free to reuse (CC BY 4.0).
Use this data
These findings are free to cite under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license — please link back to this page. Copy the snippet below to embed a headline stat:
<p>According to PersProtect's Data Broker Exposure Report, 74% of 190 data brokers publish your home address. <a href="https://persprotect.com/research/data-broker-exposure-report">Read the study</a>.</p>Journalists: email support@persprotect.com for the full per-broker breakdown.
Cite this report
Free to share and cite under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license, with attribution and a link back. Suggested citation:
PersProtect. (2026). The Data Broker Exposure Report. Retrieved from https://persprotect.com/research/data-broker-exposure-reportJournalists & researchers: email support@persprotect.com for the underlying data or an interview.
See which brokers expose you — then remove them
Run a free check to see where your data is exposed across breach and broker databases — then we remove it from 499 broker and people-search sites and keep re-removing it as they re-list you.
See also: data-broker opt-out guide · what is a data broker? · your privacy rights by state
About this report
How many data brokers expose your home address?
In our review of 190 data brokers, 74% publish your current or past home address, 58% expose your phone number, and 47% list your relatives. Most profiles combine several of these into one searchable dossier.
Is it hard to opt out of data brokers?
It varies. Of the 190 brokers we documented, 63% have a relatively easy opt-out, but 38% are "moderate" or "hard" — gated behind multi-step forms, account creation, phone or email verification, or duplicate listings you have to remove one by one.
Do data brokers check your identity before removing you?
Rarely. Only 4% of the brokers we reviewed ask for a government ID to process a removal. The same weak verification that makes opting out quick is what lets anyone else look you up in the first place.
How do I opt out of data brokers for free?
Every major data broker is legally required to offer a free opt-out. Find each broker’s official opt-out page, submit your listing, and confirm any verification step. Our data-broker opt-out guide links the real form for each — or you can automate it across hundreds of sites.
Why do data brokers have my information?
They build profiles from public records (voter rolls, property deeds, court filings), purchase and loyalty data, app and web tracking, and data bought from other brokers — none of which requires your permission.
Do I have to opt out of each broker separately?
Mostly yes — each broker has its own process, and they re-list you from fresh records, so it has to be repeated. The exception is California, whose DELETE Act DROP platform lets residents delete from every registered broker with one request.
Can I cite or reuse this data?
Yes. The findings are published under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license — reuse them with a link back to this page. Journalists can reach us at support@persprotect.com for the underlying breakdown.