Data brokers collect, clean and analyze data about individuals and organizations to turn it into structured data sets. The data comes from various sources of public information and includes details like name, age, gender, job title and contact information. Businesses or individuals then pay data brokers to access this data.
In a business context, that information is often used to identify sales leads, refine targeted advertising efforts or detect fraud. Some of these firms also provide clients with data analysis services to help them extract valuable information from their own internal data.
The following are some top data broker companies serving customers working in areas like lending, investing, real estate, sales and marketing.
Top Data Broker Companies
- Experian
- Equifax
- Epsilon
- Acxiom
- CoreLogic
Top Data Broker Companies
Experian is best known for its credit monitoring and reporting services. It collects and processes financial data on individuals, returning customer data and credit scores used by nearly all major lenders — from banks and credit card companies to other entities like landlords, background checkers and employment screeners.
Equifax is another major credit reporting agency, claiming to have delivered over 3 billion consumer credit files to United States lenders and helped over 87 million U.S. consumers secure credit and retail cards. The agency offers consumers tools for monitoring their credit and protecting online information. On the business side, Equifax provides services for data-based marketing, workforce management and other areas.
The Epsilon PeopleCloud leverages consumer behavior data to develop insights about what they might be interested in purchasing. Using demographic information, offline purchases and online actions like website visits and email opens, Epsilon generates a profile of each lead, fills in gaps in its information with partner data and creates what it calls a “connected identity” for its clients to use in marketing.
Acxiom is a third-party data broker that provides comprehensive data for consumer and audience insights, predictive analytics and data segmentation, which allows marketing campaigns to be appropriately targeted to specific leads. It works with brands like Spotify, Meta, Hulu and Yahoo, offering a “data portrait analysis” that lets potential clients see exactly how Acxiom data would impact their business.
CoreLogic is a Fortune 1000 company that provides consumer information, business intelligence, financial and property data and analytics to clients in the insurance, mortgage lending and real estate industries. It conducts research and tracks trends in consumer credit, disaster projections, regulatory compliance and capital markets.
TransUnion is a leading credit reporting agency that builds consumer credit reports with data from banks, finance companies, auto dealers and other entities. Consumers can use TransUnion’s products to track their credit, take measures to prevent identity theft and even estimate their credit score. Meanwhile, businesses can develop customized marketing audiences, detect fraudulent transactions and equip customers with convenient financial tools.
Oracle is a cloud data company that develops AI-driven cloud applications for various sectors, including marketing and sales. In particular, the company’s customer data platform enables organizations to build detailed customer profiles with 50 prebuilt attributes and extract insights with over two dozen AI models. Thanks to partnerships with Amazon and Google, Oracle has established itself as “the data broker for the generative AI age.”
LexisNexis delivers data analytics solutions for industries like insurance, healthcare, financial services and government. Included in LexisNexis’ slate of products is a consumer data management tool, which compiles data, standardizes it and organizes it according to personal and business categories. This way, companies can identify opportunities to improve their operations, target potential customers and enhance customer experiences, among other actions.
Aristotle is a database firm that offers nonpartisan data technologies and services for political campaigns, PACs and advocacy initiatives. The company has amassed a national file of over 235 million voters and over 190 million donors for political groups to explore. In addition, Aristotle possesses over 259 million records of consumers 18 years old and up, so businesses can practice data-driven decision-making.
LiveRamp’s main product is a platform for data connectivity: the LiveRamp Data Marketplace. It lets businesses take siloed marketing data from a range of channels and bring it into a single unified data set. The company says it is invested in the ethical use of personal data, employing self-regulatory practices to ensure that data is being used in an ethical manner.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are data broker companies?
Data broker companies are organizations that use public sources to compile personal information, including people’s names, addresses, birth dates and transaction history. They then sell this consumer data to other businesses that can use it for activities like tailoring product recommendations and developing targeted marketing campaigns.
What are the top data brokers?
According to consumer database size and annual revenue, the top data brokers are Experian, Equifax, Epsilon, Acxiom and CoreLogic.
What do data brokers do?
Data brokers use public sources to gather different data points about individuals — demographic information, online behavior, purchasing habits and more — and build a consumer profile. They then sell this personal information to other companies to use for informing decisions, personalizing marketing outreach and fulfilling other business purposes.
