An information broker (IB), also known as a data broker, is an individual or company that specializes in collecting personal data (such as income, ethnicity, political beliefs, or geolocation data) or data about companies, mostly from public records but sometimes sourced privately, and selling or licensing such information to third parties for a variety of uses. Sources, usually Internet-based since the 1990s, may include census and electoral roll records, social networking sites, court reports and purchase histories. The information from data brokers may be used in background checks used by employers and housing.

There are varying regulations around the world limiting the collection of information on individuals; privacy laws vary. In the United States there is no federal regulation protection for the consumer from data brokers, although some states have begun enacting laws individually. In the European Union, GDPR serves to regulate data brokers operations. Some data brokers report to have large numbers of population data or "data attributes". Acxiom purports to have data from 2.5 billion different people.

A complete guide to protect your self from data being stolen and used for different proposes making you and your mind controlable whcih is a crime in internet world and no boday knows how things are going away from you on a single agreement clicks which has become a common thing which i have address in this course and after watching this you will know how data is collected as individuals after making your profiles sold to many other companies which you never heard and at last they are profiting with your data .