Companies Are Selling Your Personal Data Right Now — Here’s How To Find Out What They Know About You

There are companies you’ve never heard of that know your full name, your home address, your phone number, your income range, your shopping habits, your political views, and your health interests. And right now, they’re selling that information to anyone willing to pay.

Data brokers work like factories. They pull information from the apps you use, websites you visit, loyalty cards you scan, public records and even location data from your phone. Then they combine it into a shockingly detailed picture of your life.

This industry operates largely in the shadows. Most people have no idea it exists — and that’s exactly how it’s designed to work.

 What Do Data Brokers Actually Know About You?

The answer is more than you’d be comfortable with. A typical data broker profile includes:

• Your full legal name, current and previous addresses
• Your phone numbers — personal and work
• Your email addresses
• Your estimated income and net worth
• Your family members’ names and their details
• Your shopping preferences and purchase history
• Your political affiliation based on voting records
• Your health interests inferred from your search history
• Your daily movement patterns from location data
• Your social media activity and interests

This data is packaged and sold to advertisers, insurers, political groups, background check sites and most worryingly, scammers.

The scammer who calls you knowing your name, your bank, and your approximate location? They likely bought your data from a broker.

Why Is This Legal?

In most countries — including Nigeria — data brokerage operates in a legal grey zone. The data brokers argue they are only collecting publicly available information and data that users voluntarily shared through app terms and conditions that nobody reads.

Enforcement of data protection regulations is intensifying globally. As of December 2025, Europe has issued 2,679 GDPR fines totalling over €6.7 billion since May 2018. Europe is leading the crackdown. The US is starting to catch up with state-level laws. Most of Africa — including Nigeria — is still in the early stages of building enforcement infrastructure strong enough to hold these companies accountable. Hostinger

Until regulation catches up, protecting yourself is a personal responsibility.

What You Can Do Right Now

Step 1 — Search for yourself online Go to Google and search your full name in quotes — “David Uche” for example — along with your city. See what comes up. What appears in those results is a sample of what data brokers have on you. People-search sites like Spokeo, WhitePages, BeenVerified, and MyLife are data broker sites — if your information appears there, it’s being sold.

Step 2 — Request removal from major data brokers Most data brokers are legally required to remove your information if you request it directly. It’s tedious but free:

• Go to each broker’s website
• Find their “Do Not Sell My Information” or “Opt Out” page
• Submit your removal request
• Follow up — removals are not always permanent and need to be repeated

Step 3 — Tighten your app permissions immediately

• On your phone go to Settings → Privacy → Location Services
• Review every app that has access to your location and revoke it from any app that doesn’t genuinely need it
• Do the same for microphone and camera permissions
• Location data is one of the most valuable things data brokers collect and it comes almost entirely from your phone apps

Step 4 — Read before you click “Accept” Every time you download an app and click through the terms without reading them you are potentially consenting to your data being collected and sold. At minimum, when installing new apps look for a “Manage Permissions” option and decline everything non-essential.

Step 5 — Use a private email for sign-ups Create a separate email address specifically for app sign-ups, loyalty cards, and online shopping. Keep your real personal email private. This limits how easily brokers can link your various online identities into one profile.

The Bigger Picture

Privacy not only protects individuals from harmful data breaches but also safeguards personal dignity, intimacy, and trust in digital relationships.

Your data is not just a commercial asset to be bought and sold. It is an extension of your identity, your behaviour, and your private life. The companies profiting from it built an entire industry on the assumption that most people don’t know it’s happening.

Now you do.

Take 10 minutes this week to search for yourself online and request removal from at least one data broker site. It won’t solve everything but it’s a meaningful start — and every step you take makes you a harder target.

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