Have you ever got an ad in your email inbox? Have you been surprised by how similar they are with preferences or situations?
You might have thought that this is a coincidence, this is not. This didn’t happen coincidentally. What is more possible is that the company has acquired the details from a data broker.
If you’re acquainted with data brokers, this isn’t going to come as a shock. However, if you are unfamiliar, you must be thinking what are data brokers.
The data brokering business is a multi-billion-dollar business. It is made up of firms that gather customer data and give it to other businesses for marketing.
Your personal information is precious, sensitive, and costs a lot of money to data brokers. The businesses who bring in the customer identities and show up with a sticker price.
Your data is an asset acquired and sold on the open market. Data brokers work within the framework of the legislation and do not need your permission.
Data brokers are entities that gather, organize and sell your details to 3rd parties engaged in targeting you as a customer, a purchaser, and even as a private individual. Compiling and selling information is the central feature of data brokering. This is the biggest reason for the presence of data brokers.
Decoding the work of data brokers
Essentially, they are businesses who gather data from relevant documents, internet activities, and purchasing history. They resell it to other businesses for marketing reasons. The more marketers know about customers, the more focused they can make their ads.
So the data brokers aim to obtain as much knowledge as they can. About 1,400 “leading brands” offer loyalty card details to data brokers.
When you successfully registered with a loyalty card or used a credit card at shops, there’s a fair possibility that the data you’ve given has been provided to a broker. Based on the shop you’ve signed up to, you are added into different databases.
It’s pretty fair to say that a piece of your information is in the broker register.
The cycle of their work
Data brokers earn money by sharing confidential info that they have compiled, refined, and categorized into customer groups. In most cases, data control is not formally passed between entities but instead rented to several 3rd parties in the form of subscription agreements.
Data broker lottery is the marketing of data as a packed consumer kit. The entire thing is bigger than the total of its pieces.
The more polished or delicate the packed results, the higher the price tag. By integrating contact details, demographic data, and customer preference data, data brokers can build categories. These categories will be marketed.
Put simply, the data broker business model relies on predetermined customer segments. However, not all forms of data purchasers are involved in buying these sets. Often largest data brokers earn money by selling data about a single user. This is done usually in the way of White Pages or people browsing websites.
Anywhere you go, you’re being watched. Not by some stranger in the hoody, but by the advertisers who want to sell you stuff.
The more marketers know about you, the more they will analyze you, identify your preferences, and use that knowledge to promote you with advertising. You should thank the apps on your mobile phone, to be more correct.
