How Accurate Are Data Brokers?

The Accuracy Problem

Data brokers present themselves as comprehensive information services. They imply that the profiles they sell are reliable, up to date, and thoroughly sourced. The reality is far messier. Independent analyses and consumer complaints consistently show that somewhere between 20% and 30% of data broker profiles contain errors significant enough to matter -- wrong information attributed to real people, sold to anyone willing to pay a few dollars for a lookup.

These are not trivial typos. The most common categories of error include:

• Wrong middle names or suffixes -- a junior confused with a senior, or a middle initial pulled from a different person's record entirely
• Outdated addresses listed as current -- an apartment you left eight years ago still showing as your primary residence, because the broker never received an update
• Non-relatives listed as relatives -- former roommates, ex-spouses' new partners, or complete strangers who once shared your address appear as "known associates" or "possible relatives"
• Age and birth year errors -- profiles for two people with the same name get merged, producing a single record with the wrong age
• Criminal records from namesakes -- someone who shares your name has an arrest record, and the broker's automated matching assigns it to your profile
• Stale employer information -- a job you held a decade ago listed as your current employer, because broker databases rarely receive termination updates

The root cause is structural. Data brokers ingest billions of records from voter registrations, property filings, court records, utility connections, magazine subscriptions, warranty cards, and dozens of other sources. Matching those records to the correct individual is done algorithmically, with no human review. When two people share a name, or when a record contains a data entry error at the source, the broker's system has no way to catch it. The error propagates silently.

Who Gets Hurt by Inaccurate Data

Broker errors are not an abstract problem. They produce concrete, documented harm to real people. The damage tends to cluster around three groups.

Job applicants

When a hiring manager runs an informal background check on a people-search site and finds a criminal record, the applicant rarely gets a chance to explain that the record belongs to a different person with the same name. The search happens quietly, the candidate is passed over, and they never learn why. Unlike formal background check services regulated under the FCRA, people-search sites have no obligation to notify the subject, verify the match, or provide a dispute process. The result is that people lose job opportunities based on information that is simply wrong.

People denied housing

Landlords use the same people-search sites to screen prospective tenants. An eviction record belonging to a namesake, or an outdated address suggesting instability, can be enough to reject an application. The tenant has no way to know the search happened and no mechanism to challenge what the landlord found. Small landlords, who handle their own screening rather than using regulated tenant-screening services, are especially likely to rely on unverified broker data.

Data doppelgangers

This is the most pernicious category. When a broker's matching algorithm merges two people into a single profile, the resulting record is a composite that accurately describes neither person. Your name, combined with someone else's criminal record and a third person's phone number, presented as a single identity. People who share common names -- Smith, Johnson, Garcia, Williams -- face this risk most acutely. Untangling a merged profile requires contacting every broker that carries the bad data, and even then, the merge may recur the next time the broker refreshes its database.

Why Brokers Don't Fix Errors

If you have ever tried to correct an error on a data broker site, you already know the answer: it is nearly impossible. Most brokers offer an opt-out process to remove your profile entirely, but almost none offer a dispute process to correct specific fields. This is not an oversight. It is a business decision.

Volume is the product, not accuracy. Data brokers make money by selling access to the largest possible database of consumer records. A broker with 300 million profiles charges more than one with 200 million. The cost of verifying each record -- confirming that Robert Thorpe at 142 Maple Street is actually Robert Thorpe and not Robert Thorp, or that the criminal record belongs to the right Robert Thorpe -- would be enormous. No broker's revenue model can absorb that cost.

There is no verification step in the ingestion pipeline. When a broker receives a new batch of public records, those records are processed algorithmically and added to the database. There is no human review, no confirmation call, no cross-reference against authoritative sources. The system is designed for throughput, not accuracy. A record that says "Robert Thorpe, age 41, Brooklyn NY" gets merged with an existing profile for "Robert Thorpe, Brooklyn NY" regardless of whether it is the same person.

Building opt-out is cheaper than building dispute resolution. Opt-out is a simple binary: delete the profile or don't. A dispute process would require brokers to evaluate claims, investigate sources, make judgment calls about conflicting data, and potentially rebuild profiles from scratch. It would also expose them to liability if they got the correction wrong. From a business perspective, it is far easier to let users remove themselves entirely and skip the question of accuracy altogether.

What You Can Do

Dispute errors on individual sites

If a specific broker profile contains factually wrong information -- a criminal record that is not yours, a relative you have never met, an address you have never lived at -- you can contact the broker and request a correction. Be prepared for a slow process. Most brokers do not have a dedicated dispute form; you will need to use their general contact email or opt-out page and explain the error in writing. Include documentation when possible: a government-issued ID showing your correct date of birth, a court record showing a charge was dismissed, or evidence that you never lived at the listed address. Some brokers will correct specific fields; others will only offer to remove your entire profile.

Know your FCRA rights

If a data broker sells your information for purposes covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act -- credit decisions, employment screening, housing applications, or insurance underwriting -- they are legally required to maintain reasonable accuracy and provide a dispute process. Most people-search sites include a disclaimer that their data should not be used for FCRA purposes, which is how they avoid these obligations. However, if you can demonstrate that a broker's data was used in a covered decision (for example, you were denied a job and the employer referenced broker data), you may have legal recourse. The FTC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau both accept complaints about FCRA violations.

Why removal is sometimes better than correction

Correcting errors on broker sites is a game of whack-a-mole. You fix the record at one broker, and the error persists at thirty others. Meanwhile, the broker you corrected may re-ingest the bad data from a different source and overwrite your correction within months. For most people, removing your profile entirely is faster, more effective, and more durable than trying to fix individual fields. A removal service that monitors your presence across dozens of brokers and re-submits opt-outs when profiles reappear provides a more practical solution than chasing corrections site by site.