(1) A company that collects and sells personal information about individuals in order to create ad campaigns that target people with products that match their specific tastes and preferences. Information brokers purchase data from telecom and tech companies as well as collect data from credit bureaus, government and other public records. Also called a "data broker" and "data aggregator." See
people search and
Web tracking.
(2) An individual who searches for information for clients. Information brokers use various resources including the Internet, online services that specialize in databases, public libraries and books. They also make plain old-fashioned telephone calls. The word "broker" is a misnomer. Information retrieval consultant would be more accurate. Sue Rugge and Alfred Glossbrenner wrote an excellent book on the subject, "The Information Broker's Handbook." See
Web search engines and
people search.