Data brokers do exist, and while their actual job isn’t as glamorous as fiction makes it out to be, they are gunning for you – and making a lot of money doing it. Here’s an article that may help you understand it more succinctly.
What is a data broker?
An organisation that gathers and sells data is referred to as a data broker. The most important thing for us to note is that they collect information about people (you) and resell it to marketers (bad).
It would not be cost-effective for marketers to have their own divisions that gather data for them. It might also take a lot of effort to customise the research for an ad campaign or other purpose. Meanwhile, the data broker has all of the information; all they have to do now is organise it in the manner requested by the consumer.
As a result, data brokers allow marketers to run highly targeted advertisements. You’re selling cigarettes (a kind of non-electronic vape) and wish to attract non-smokers, for example. If you’re running a campaign in Europe, you’ll want to target people between the ages of 18 and 30 who are interested in partying, social clubs, and drinking. You’re also excluding anybody that has shown an interest in exercise, a healthy lifestyle, yoga, or meditation at the same time.
Google, Facebook, email, text messages, influencer videos, Instagram (stories and feed), and even in-person advertisements are all potential uses for these ads.
How does a data broker work?
Data brokers function by collecting data and then selling it to interested parties, as we previously said.
These are some examples of how Data brokers collect data:
Public Records Scraping: The government has access to a wealth of data about each and every one of us, some of which are public. Data brokers acquire census information, court records, and other documents in order to do so.
Social Media Scraping: Every day, a person creates approximately 1.7MB of data about themselves. A lot of it is found on social media, which is available for all to see because we all require likes and shares. So the brokers collect that information from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms.
Purchasing it from alternative sources: Your ISP might sell your consumer data in the United States. Your credit card provider may do so as well. And if you have retail loyalty cards, that’s just a dataset waiting to be sold. That’s not even counting sources like free-to-play applications and other things!
To prevent any of the above from happening, consider getting a VPN download to protect your data and stay anonymous online.
How much money does a data broker make?
A data broker may charge $79 per 1000 users. Your email address alone might be worth up to $251 in certain sectors (for retailers) to $84 (for food and beverages).
The market was valued at $150 billion in 2013. It had risen to $235 billion by 2019, according to projections, with a goal of reaching $345 billion by 2026.
The majority of web traffic is generated in North America, both due to the popularity of powerful analytical methods (read: the desperate need to narrow down the most lucrative demographic to show advertisements to) and because of the adoption of IoT – after all, Google Assistant is listening. The Asia Pacific, on the other hand, is catching up fast.