Companies That Sell Your Data (2026 List)

TL;DR: Many companies sell your personal data, including data brokers, social media platforms, ad-tech companies, and free apps. Under the CCPA's definition, "selling" data includes sharing personal information with third parties for targeted advertising -- not just exchanging data for cash. PrivacyFetch flags companies that sell personal data as part of its automated privacy analysis. You can check any company for the "Sells personal data" red flag and data sharing score.

Which Types of Companies Sell Your Data?

Not every company sells your personal data, but more do than you think. The companies most likely to sell your information fall into five categories.

1. Data Brokers

Data brokers are the most direct sellers of personal information. Their entire business model is collecting data about people and selling it to other companies.

Major data broker categories include:

• Consumer data brokers: Acxiom, Oracle Data Cloud, LiveRamp -- collect demographic, behavioral, and purchase data on hundreds of millions of people
• People search sites: Spokeo, WhitePages, BeenVerified -- aggregate public records and sell access to personal details (address, phone, relatives, criminal records)
• Marketing data providers: Epsilon, Lotame, Bombora -- sell audience segments and targeting data to advertisers
• Risk and identity brokers: LexisNexis Risk Solutions, TransUnion (beyond credit), Verisk -- sell personal data for insurance underwriting, background checks, and fraud scoring

California law requires data brokers to register with the state. As of 2026, over 500 companies are listed on the California data broker registry. The actual number of data brokers operating globally is estimated at over 4,000.

Data brokers hold an average of 1,500 data points per individual in their databases.

2. Social Media Platforms

Social media companies collect vast amounts of personal data and monetize it through advertising. Whether this counts as "selling" is the central privacy debate of the past decade.

How social media platforms sell your data:

• Sharing user data with advertising partners through real-time bidding auctions
• Providing audience targeting tools that let advertisers reach you based on your profile data
• Allowing third-party tracking pixels to collect data about you on the platform
• Sharing aggregated (and sometimes individual-level) data with measurement partners

Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) generates 97% of its revenue from advertising. The company's advertising system lets businesses target you based on your interests, behavior, location, connections, and activity across the Meta platform family and third-party websites using the Meta Pixel.

Check the privacy profiles of major social media platforms on PrivacyFetch:

• facebook.com
• instagram.com
• tiktok.com
• x.com
• linkedin.com

3. Ad-Tech and Programmatic Advertising Companies

The ad-tech industry is built on trading personal data. These companies operate the infrastructure that connects advertisers with consumers:

• Demand-side platforms (DSPs): Buy ad space on behalf of advertisers, using personal data to target the right users
• Supply-side platforms (SSPs): Sell ad space on behalf of publishers, sharing user data to attract higher bids
• Data management platforms (DMPs): Collect, organize, and sell audience data from multiple sources
• Ad exchanges: Marketplaces where personal data is shared with hundreds of companies during each ad auction

During a single real-time bidding (RTB) auction, your data -- including location, device information, browsing context, and tracking identifiers -- is broadcast to dozens or hundreds of companies. A 2024 study found that personal data reaches over 4,700 companies through RTB globally.

4. Free Apps and Services

When a product is free, your data is the revenue. Many free apps and services sell personal data to sustain their business model:

• Free mobile apps: Games, weather apps, flashlight apps, and other utilities frequently share device identifiers, location, and usage data with advertising networks and data brokers
• Free email providers: Some free email services scan message content and sell derived data to advertisers
• Free VPNs: Multiple free VPN services have been caught selling user browsing data -- the exact data people used the VPN to keep private
• Browser extensions: Free browser extensions can access your browsing history and sell it to data aggregators
• Loyalty and rewards programs: Free loyalty cards track your purchases and sell the data to data brokers and marketing partners

A 2023 study found that the average smartphone user has 80 apps installed, and approximately 70% of those apps share data with at least one third-party tracker.

5. Telecom and Internet Service Providers

ISPs and telecom companies see all of your internet traffic (unless you use a VPN) and sell this data:

• Browsing history: ISPs can see every website you visit (domain level even with HTTPS)
• Location data: Mobile carriers sell location data derived from cell tower connections
• Usage patterns: When you are online, how much data you use, what types of services you access

In 2017, the US Congress reversed FCC rules that would have required ISPs to get consent before selling browsing data. Since then, major carriers have operated data monetization programs.

What "Selling Data" Means Under the Law

The legal definition of "selling data" is broader than handing over a data file for cash. Under the CCPA:

"Selling" includes:

• Exchanging personal data for money
• Sharing personal data with a third party for "other valuable consideration" (such as free analytics tools or advertising services)
• Allowing a third-party advertising script to collect personal data from your website
• Sharing data with advertising partners in exchange for targeted ad capabilities

"Selling" does NOT include:

• Sharing data with a service provider processing data on your behalf under a contract
• Sharing data as required by law (court orders, subpoenas)
• Sharing data at the consumer's explicit direction
• Sharing data as part of a merger or acquisition

This distinction matters because many companies claim they "do not sell your data" while engaging in practices that meet the CCPA's legal definition of a sale. When Facebook shares your data with an advertising partner in exchange for ad targeting tools, that is a sale under the law -- even though no cash changed hands for your individual data.

How PrivacyFetch Identifies Companies That Sell Data

PrivacyFetch uses automated analysis to identify data selling across every company in its directory. The detection system examines three types of evidence:

Policy Language

The AI extraction system reads each company's privacy policy and flags explicit statements about selling, sharing, licensing, or trading personal information. It looks for phrases like:

• "We may sell your personal information"
• "We share data with our advertising partners"
• "We provide information to third parties for targeted advertising"
• "We may disclose personal data for valuable consideration"

Tracking Infrastructure

PrivacyFetch scans company websites for 50+ known tracking scripts across six categories. The presence of advertising trackers -- particularly ad exchange pixels, programmatic ad tags, and social media tracking scripts -- indicates data is being shared with third-party advertising networks.

Data Partner Analysis

The system maps every third-party data sharing relationship disclosed in the privacy policy and categorizes partners as service providers, analytics providers, advertising partners, or data brokers. Companies with multiple advertising partners or disclosed broker relationships receive the "Sells personal data" or "Shares with data brokers" red flags.

The penalty for selling personal data is the most severe in the PrivacyFetch scoring system: -40 points on the data sharing dimension. Companies that also share with data brokers receive an additional -25 points. These penalties alone can drop a company's data sharing score below 40 out of 100.

How to Check If a Company Sells Your Data

You can check any company in seconds:

1. Go to privacyfetch.com/explore
2. Search for the company by name or domain
3. Open the company profile
4. Look for the "Sells personal data" red flag
5. Check the data sharing score -- scores below 40 indicate aggressive data selling
6. Review the Data Practices tab for a full list of third-party partners and data sharing categories

You can also compare multiple companies to see which alternatives share less data.

How to Stop Companies from Selling Your Data

1. Exercise Your Right to Opt Out

Under the CCPA and similar state laws, you can tell any company to stop selling your personal information:

• Look for the "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" link on company websites
• Enable Global Privacy Control (GPC) in your browser -- this automatically signals all websites that you opt out of data sales
• Submit individual opt-out requests through company privacy settings

2. Request Data Deletion

You have the right to request deletion of your personal data under GDPR, CCPA, and many state privacy laws. This removes the data that companies would otherwise sell.

PrivacyFetch tracks deletion difficulty for every company. Some companies process deletion requests in days. Others require phone calls, identity verification, or multi-step processes designed to discourage you.

3. Remove Yourself from Data Brokers

For data brokers specifically:

• Manually opt out: Visit each data broker's opt-out page and submit removal requests. This is time-consuming -- there are hundreds of brokers.
• Use a removal service: Companies like DeleteMe and Kanary automate the opt-out process across dozens of major brokers.
• Monitor regularly: Data brokers continuously collect data, so removal is not permanent. Re-check quarterly.

4. Reduce Data Collection

• Use a privacy-focused browser (Firefox, Brave) with tracking blockers
• Install an ad blocker that removes third-party tracking scripts
• Turn off location sharing for apps that do not need it
• Use a VPN to prevent your ISP from selling browsing data
• Avoid free apps that monetize through data sharing

5. Choose Privacy-Friendly Alternatives

Use PrivacyFetch to find companies with high data sharing scores and no "Sells data" flags. When you have a choice between two competing services, the privacy score comparison is one of the fastest ways to make an informed decision.

Key Takeaways

• Five types of companies are most likely to sell your data: data brokers, social media platforms, ad-tech companies, free apps, and telecom providers
• Under the CCPA, "selling" includes sharing data with advertising partners for targeted ads -- not just exchanging data for cash
• Over 4,000 data brokers operate globally, holding an average of 1,500 data points per person
• PrivacyFetch automatically detects data selling through policy analysis, tracker detection, and partner mapping -- check any company
• You can opt out of data sales, request deletion, and enable Global Privacy Control (GPC) to reduce data selling across all websites
• Use the compare tool to find alternatives that do not sell your data

This analysis is based on PrivacyFetch's automated privacy policy analysis. Check any company's privacy score