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Data brokers have long operated in the shadows of the internet, quietly amassing unprecedented amounts of personal information on billions of people across the globe, but few realize just how deep this data collection really goes.

In an age where every move you make online — every click, every purchase, every “like” — is meticulously harvested, packaged, and sold for profit, aggregated personal data has become a valuable commodity, and the global data broker industry is proof of that.

The rise of artificial intelligence tools poses the risk of even more personal information being scraped from the internet and an already opaque world of data brokering becoming even more aggressive, and that is heightening data privacy concerns. A 2023 study from Pew Research found that the American public increasingly says it does not understand what companies do with their data. According to Pew, 67% of Americans say they “understand little to nothing about what companies are doing with their personal data, up from 59% in its previous survey on the subject in 2019. A majority of Americans (73%) think they have “little to no control” over what companies do with their data.

Many people are unaware that something as simple as their phone number can be used by data brokers and bad actors to uncover highly sensitive information, including a Social Security number, address, email, and even family details, said Arjun Bhatnagar, co-founder and CEO of Cloaked, an app that disguises your personal information by generating a unique “identity” for each online account you have.

According to Roger Grimes, an expert at cybersecurity education firm KnowBe4, while many data brokers —especially the more well-known players — sell information responsibly, some of the smaller, unknown brokerages skirt regulations, push ethical boundaries, and exploit data in ways that can lead to misuse or harm. This is partly due to the hazy regulation landscape around data brokerage, which makes it easier for these practices to go unchecked.

Some of the largest providers of data brokerage services include Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, LexisNexis, Epsilon (formerly Acxiom), and CoreLogic, according to a ranking from OneRep, an online personal data management service. People-search services Spokeo and Intelius are also among the top data brokers, according to OneRep. These companies operate across multiple industries, handling both publicly available information and more sensitive consumer data. They offer various services, ranging from marketing analytics to credit scoring and background checks, and all of them have processes for requesting your data or asking for it to be deleted. However, depending on the state you live in, they may not have to comply.

Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are a good place to begin to understand how much the data industry has grown. While many consumers know these companies for their credit services, those are now just one piece of the revenue pie, with broader digital marketing of data increasingly important, according to Jeff Chester, founder and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a Washington, D.C.,-based consumer privacy advocate. And data collection spans much farther across the economy, with companies from grocery stores offering discount programs to streaming video services amassing data that others will pay for. “Today, everyone is a data broker. Having the ability to reach someone online and target has become a core part of business,” Chester said.

“I try to lock down everything as much as I can, but I’m also aware that even though I’m a security expert, I’m probably overexposed,” said Bruno Kurtic, president and CEO of data security firm Bedrock Security.

As a basic step to limit financial risks, he recommends that all individuals freeze their credit reports as a proactive measure against identity theft and to prevent malicious actors from opening new accounts or loans in their name.

Inside data brokers’ massive vault

Cybersecurity experts estimate that data brokers collect an average of 1,000 data points on each individual with an online presence.

“It behooves them to collect as much as humanly possible about you, because the larger the information pool about you and the more specific they can get, the higher the cost of that data,” said Chris Henderson, senior director of threat operations at Huntress, a cybersecurity company founded by former National Security Agency personnel.

Here’s a breakdown of the types of information data brokers typically collect, according to privacy experts interviewed by CNBC:

  • Basic identifiers. Full name, address, phone number, and email.
  • Financial data. Credit scores and payment history.
  • Purchase history. What you search for online, what you buy, where you buy it, and how often you buy certain products.
  • Health data. Your medications, medical conditions, and your interactions with health-related apps or websites.
  • Behavioral data. Insights into your likes, dislikes, and the types of ads you’re likely to click on.
  • Real-time location data. GPS data from apps that track your commute, where you shop, and how often you visit certain places.
  • Inferred characteristics. Based on you’re your browsing and media consumption — the websites you visit, articles you read, videos you watch, data brokers draw insights about your lifestyle, income, preferences, religious or political beliefs, hobbies, and even your likelihood of charitable giving.
  • Relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. By analyzing your network of friends, followers, and connections on social media and messaging apps, data brokers can map out your relationships and even track how frequently you interact with certain individuals to determine the depth of your bonds.

Little oversight around data privacy

The lack of comprehensive regulation around data privacy allows data brokers to operate with little oversight, unlike the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union.

“There is no comprehensive federal privacy law that specifically regulates the industry, which makes it hard to combat them,” said Chelsea Magnant, adjunct instructor of cyber leadership at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and a director at corporate consulting firm Brunswick. “We essentially have a patchwork of state laws with varying privacy protections that these companies know how to navigate.”

California was the first to enact comprehensive legislation in 2018 with the California Consumer Privacy Act, giving residents more control over their personal data. In 2020, California voters approved an expansion of the CCPA, called the California Privacy Rights Act, which took effect in 2023. It offers the most extensive protections in the U.S., including data correction, limiting the use of sensitive information, and requiring businesses to honor opt-out preference signals. It also imposes stricter data-protection obligations on companies, such as minimizing data collection.

Since then, about 20 other U.S. states have followed suit; however, the specific rights and thresholds for which companies must comply vary widely between states.

“Different states have different business environments, economies, and viewpoints. This lack of a unified approach, something that protects all citizens across the country, leaves us vulnerable to data brokers,” said Rob Hughes, chief information security officer at RSA.

Even in states where the privacy laws are strict, there is skepticism that smaller companies on the margins of the data brokerage industry will follow them. “They have extremely sensitive data sets under their management, and they have to essentially behave like the most sensitive enterprises. And we know that some of these data brokers just don’t operate businesses like that,” Kurtic said.

How to take control of your data

To start protecting your privacy, it’s important to rethink how much personal information is shared on a daily basis, says Cloaked’s Bhatnagar. While we can’t fully hide, consumers need to develop new habits and tools to limit what we expose, from turning off permissions that track your location to saying no to cookies and refraining from posting personal details online. Additionally, using tools like secure browsers, VPNs, and tracker blockers can help.

Some of the largest technology companies in our daily lives, such as Apple, are continually updating and adding to privacy options, such as on the new iPhone and latest iOS update.

An Equifax spokeswoman said U.S. consumers can opt out of their personal information being shared in accordance with U.S. state privacy laws. On average, she said, opt-out requests made through the Equifax Privacy Preference Center are processed in less than one business day and consumers are informed of a successful submission through the company’s Preference Center. Consumers can also review the types of third-parties that companies such as Equifax share personal data within its privacy section.

Opt-out links and instructions are readily available for most of the major data brokers:

But data privacy experts says reclaiming or deleting your data from brokers can be a deliberately complex process that is not only time-consuming but frustrating. Each broker has its own opt-out requirements, and even after you’ve removed your data, it often reappears, sourced from other places.

“Removing your data from their systems impacts their bottom line, so they are disincentivized to make this easy for you,” said Henderson. “Ultimately, if you remove the information, they can’t sell that. So the more people who request their information be removed, the less attractive of a broker they are to the advertisers.”

There are data-removal services, such as DeleteMe, Kanary, OneRep, and PrivacyDuck, which charge a fee to manage these ongoing tasks, and are becoming increasingly popular. In October, Consumer Reports launched Permission Slip, a free app that helps you control which companies can collect, store and sell your personal data. It relies on donations to keep it going, either through the app or the Consumer Reports website.

For those opting for the DIY approach, here’s what the data privacy experts interviewed by CNBC recommend to get started:

Identify the brokers collecting your data. As already stated, this can be a daunting task, as many operate behind the scenes. However, there are a few methods you can use to track them down, says Henderson. One is to conduct a Google search using your name, phone number, and email address and see which brokers pop up. You’ll most likely find your name on sites like Spokeo, Whitepages, or MyLife. Another strategy is to visit the websites of the largest data brokers and search your information.

Submit opt-out requests. If you live in a state with data privacy regulations, you can submit a request to delete your data on the opt-out page of these companies’ websites, including at the links listed above, so they cannot share your data with third-party companies. It’s important to note that each broker may have different processes for handling these requests and state laws vary when it comes to what types of data are covered. Some data brokers may also require you to provide identification or verify your identity.

Check your results. After submitting opt-out requests, revisit the data brokers’ sites periodically to ensure your data has been removed. It may take several weeks or months for your request to be processed.

Engage in digital hygiene practices. Regularly reviewing and updating your online security practices is essential. Secure passwords, two-factor authentication, and encryption tools can help protect your information. Using virtual identities, such as alternative email addresses and phone numbers, can further safeguard your personal information.

Seek legal recourse if necessary. If a data broker refuses to comply with a deletion request, you may be able to file a formal complaint with regulatory authorities such as the Federal Trade Commission, which has brought cases against the industry.

However, it’s important to understand that not every state provides the same level of protection. Consult a privacy attorney if you believe your rights have been violated.

‘The future is unfortunately dark’

Experts say deleting the data is an imperfect solution, “a Band-Aid to address a gaping wound,” according to Chester.

“Consumers have been placed in a bad position,” he said. “Data is now a form of payment,” he added, referring to cases where the consumer wants a discount in the grocery store or pharmacy. “This is a comprehensive privacy problem which requires Congress or the FTC. The idea an individual can take care of their privacy … you can shut down a tiny bit of it, but you would need to spend a great deal of time, and once you opt-in to get a discount at a store, it all starts over again.”

The future of the data broker industry looks both promising and troubling as technological advancements continue. Javad Abed, assistant professor of information systems at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, warns that data brokers will continue to evolve as AI and machine learning advance.

“With AI, data brokers will create even more detailed and predictive profiles, incorporating everything from biometric data to behavioral tracking,” Abed said. “The problem will increase, and things are going to become more complicated.”

Abed sees potential in blockchain and privacy-enhancing technologies, which could disrupt the data brokerage model by increasing transparency and giving individuals more control over their digital identities. However, he remains skeptical: “The future is unfortunately dark. It needs to be collaborative work. I don’t see the motivation right now from the main actors for a collaborative change.” 

“Telling our grandmothers or a child to configure settings on their social media and their browsers and search engines is not a winning proposition,” Kurtic said. “It’s going to take a combination of regulation, technology on the vendor side, and know-how on our own personal side.”

Until regulation steps in, data brokers will continue to collect as much data as possible. “These are revenue streams for companies that might not have other recurring revenue streams,” Henderson said. “And given there’s no regulation stopping businesses from selling information about you, I don’t see the practice stopping, especially given how lucrative it is.”

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Nvidia just spent over $900 million to hire Enfabrica CEO, license AI startup’s technology

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Nvidia just spent over 0 million to hire Enfabrica CEO, license AI startup's technology

Co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., Jensen Huang attends the 9th edition of the VivaTech trade show in Paris on June 11, 2025.

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Nvidia has just shelled out over $900 million to hire Enfabrica CEO Rochan Sankar and other employees at the artificial intelligence hardware startup, and to license the company’s technology, CNBC has learned.

In a deal reminiscent of recent AI talent acquisitions made by Meta and Google, Nvidia is paying cash and stock in the transaction, according to two people familiar with the arrangement. The deal closed last week, and Enfabrica CEO Rochan Sankar has joined Nvidia, said the people, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.

Nvidia has served as the backbone of the AI boom that began with the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022. The company’s graphics processing units (GPUs), which are generally purchased in large clusters, power the training of large language models and allow for big cloud providers to offer AI services to clients.

Enfabrica, founded in 2019, says its technology can connect more than 100,000 GPUs together. It’s a solution that could help Nvidia offer integrated systems around its chips so clusters can effectively serve as a single computer.

A spokesperson for Nvidia declined to comment, and Enfabrica didn’t provide a comment for this story.

While Nvidia’s earlier AI chips like the A100 were single processors slotted into servers, its most recent products come in tall racks with 72 GPUs installed working together. That’s the kind of system inside the $4 billion data center in Wisconsin that Microsoft announced on Thursday.

Nvidia previously invested in Enfabrica as part of a $125 million Series B round in 2023 that was led by Atreides Management. The company didn’t disclose its valuation at the time, but said that it was a fivefold increase from its Series A funding.

Late last year, Enfabrica raised another $115 million from investors including Spark Capital, Arm, Samsung and Cisco. According to PitchBook, the post-money valuation was about $600 million.

Tech giants Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all poured money into hiring top AI talent through deals that resemble acquihires. The transactions allow the companies to bring in top engineers and researchers without worrying about the regulatory hassles that come with acquisitions.

The biggest such deal came in June, when Meta spent $14.3 billion on Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang and others and took a 49% stake in the AI startup. A month later, Google announced an agreement to bring in Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence coding startup Windsurf, and other research and development employees in a $2.4 billion deal that also included licensing fees.

Last year, Google made a similar deal to bring in the founders of Character.AI. Microsoft did the same thing for Inflection, as did Amazon for Adept.

While Nvidia has been a big investor in AI technologies and infrastructure, it hasn’t been a significant acquirer. The company’s only billion-dollar-plus deal was for Israeli chip designer Mellanox, a $6.9 billion purchase announced in 2019. Much of Nvidia’s current Blackwell product lineup is enabled by networking technology that it acquired through that acquisition.

Nvidia tried to buy chip design company Arm, but that deal collapsed in 2022 due to regulatory pressure. In the past year, Nvidia closed a $700 million purchase of Run:ai, an Israeli company whose technology helps software makers optimize their infrastructure for AI.

On Thursday, Nvidia announced one of its most sizable investments to date. The chipmaker said it’s taken a $5 billion stake in Intel, and announced that the two companies will collaborate on AI processors. Nvidia also said this week that it invested close to $700 million in U.K. data center startup Nscale.

— Correction: A prior version of this story mistakenly included the name of a company as an investor in Enfabrica.

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CrowdStrike pops nearly 13% on upbeat long-term guidance at investor day

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CrowdStrike pops nearly 13% on upbeat long-term guidance at investor day

CrowdStrike logo is seen in this illustration taken July 29, 2024.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

CrowdStrike shares popped about 13%, a day after the cybersecurity firm issued better-than-expected long-term guidance at its investor day.

The company on Wednesday said it expects net new annual recurring revenues to grow at least 20% in 2027, ahead of analysts’ expectations. CrowdStrike plans for ARR to hit $10 billion by 2031, and then double to $20 billion by 2036.

Earlier this week, the firm said it was buying AI security platform Pangea and announced a partnership with Salesforce.

“CrowdStrike is by far the most advanced security platform in the industry, and the plethora of AI-based solutions announced today will further separate CrowdStrike from the competition,” wrote Wells Fargo analyst Andrew Nowinski in a note following the event.

Some Wall Street firms also boosted their price targets.

Read more CNBC tech news

Cybersecurity has taken center stage this year as businesses beef up security in the age of artificial intelligence. Many companies have harnessed AI tools to strengthen their offering as threats rise in sophistication.

This year’s biggest tech deals have included Google’s $32 billion acquisition of Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz and Palo Alto Networks’ $25 billion CyberArk deal.

Cybersecurity firm Netskope hit the public market Thursday, while Thoma Bravo-backed SailPoint debuted earlier this year.

During its recent earnings report, CrowdStrike’s revenue guidance for the third quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations.

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Nvidia CEO Huang says $5 billion stake in rival Intel will be ‘an incredible investment’

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Nvidia CEO Huang says  billion stake in rival Intel will be 'an incredible investment'

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attends the “Winning the AI Race” Summit in Washington D.C., U.S., July 23, 2025.

Kent Nishimura | Reuters

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that the company’s $5 billion investment and technology collaboration with Intel comes after the two companies held discussions for nearly a year.

Huang said that he communicated personally with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan about the partnership. He called Tan a “longtime friend” on a Thursday call with reporters after the companies announced that Nvidia would co-develop data center and PC chips with Intel as part of the investment deal. On the call, Tan said he and Huang have known each other for 30 years.

“We thought it was going to be such an incredible investment,” Huang said.

Nvidia said it will collaborate with the chipmaker to create artificial intelligence systems for data centers that combine Intel’s x86-based central processors with Nvidia’s graphics processors and networking.

Intel will also sell CPUs for PCs and notebooks that integrate Nvidia graphics processors, or GPUs.

The transaction itself took a few months to come together, Intel’s revenue chief Greg Ernst wrote in a LinkedIn post, adding that the agreement was reached on Saturday.

The investment highlights how the fortunes of the two companies have switched atop Silicon Valley’s pecking order as a result of the AI explosion ushered in by OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in late 2022.

Intel shares are down 31.78% in the last five years, while Nvidia shares are up 1,348% as of opening prices on Thursday. Nvidia is worth over $4.25 trillion, while Intel is only worth $143 billion.

How Intel and Nvidia will collaborate

For decades, the most important part in a PC or server was the central processor, and Intel dominated the market for those chips. But AI infrastructure, like the machines in the $4 billion data center Microsoft announced on Thursday, often needs two or more Nvidia GPUs for every one CPU.

Nvidia AI systems, like the NVL72 used by Microsoft, come with Arm-based CPUs, instead of Intel x86-based CPUs. On the call, Huang said Nvidia will soon support Intel’s CPUs in its NVLink racks for AI.

“We’ll buy those CPUs from from Intel, and then we’ll connect it into super chips that then becomes our compute node, that then gets integrated into a rack scale AI supercomputer,” Huang said.

Nvidia will also contribute GPU technology to Intel chips that ship in laptops and PCs, which is an underserved market, Huang said. In total, the addressable markets for the two product collaborations are worth $50 billion, Huang said.

“We’re going to become a very large customer of Intel CPUs, and we’re going to be a large supplier of GPU chiplets into Intel” chips, he said.

Huang said the deal with Intel will have “no” impact on Nvidia’s business relationship with Arm.

Thursday’s investment deal is focused on the relationship between Nvidia and Intel’s product division, not its foundry. The two companies, however, did not rule out future foundry partnerships.

“We’ve always evaluated Intel’s foundry technology, and we’re going to continue to do it, but today, this announcement, is squarely focused on these custom CPUs,” Huang said. Nvidia currently uses Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to manufacture its chips.

The collaboration will use Intel’s packaging, which is a part chip manufacturing that occurs toward the end of the process and combines several chip components into a single part that can be installed in machines.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan makes a speech on stage in Taipei, Taiwan May 19, 2025.

Ann Wang | Reuters

Tan said he was grateful for Nvidia’s vote of confidence.

“‘I’d like to thank Jensen for the confidence in me, and our team and Intel will work really hard to make sure it’s a good return for you,” Tan said.

Last year, Intel’s board removed previous CEO Pat Gelsinger because of rising costs in its manufacturing business and the company’s failure to gain a foothold in AI chips. In March, Intel named Tan, a well-connected investor who had turned around chip software firm Cadence Design Systems, its new chief executive.

Tan has focused on cutting costs and raising money in his short tenure leading Intel even as the future of the company’s manufacturing business, called Intel Foundry, remains unclear.

In addition to the $5 billion from Nvidia and $8.9 billion from the U.S. government, Intel has taken a $2 billion investment from SoftBank, sold a majority stake in its ASIC subsidiary Altera to Silver Lake for $3.3 billion and sold $1 billion in stock from Mobileye, its self-driving car subsidiary.

Intel has also cut significant staff, saying in July that it would eliminate 15% of its workforce by the end of the year.

The company develops its own chips as well as manufacturing them. It wants to manufacture chips for companies like Nvidia or Apple, but has yet to secure them as customers. Analysts say Intel needs a big foundry client to signal that its technology is stable and ready for volume production.

But cutting-edge chip manufacturing is expensive, and Intel has signaled that if it can’t get enough customers, it may not continue investing in its foundry. That could spark a reaction from Washington, whose politicians and lobbyists consider Intel to be strategically important for the nation because it is the only American company capable of manufacturing the most advanced chips.

The Trump administration took a 10% stake in Intel in August. Intel was previously in line to receive $8.9 billion in grants and loans from the CHIPS Act, but the Trump administration asked and received an equity stake in the chipmaker in exchange for the money.

Huang was with Trump this week in England to attend a State Dinner at Windsor Palace and announce new projects and investments in the U.K. But the Trump administration wasn’t involved in this deal, according to a White House official and Huang.

“Intel’s new partnership with Nvidia is a major milestone for American high-tech manufacturing,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.

— CNBC’s Megan Cassella contributed to this story

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