A data broker is an individual or company that specializes in collecting personal data (such as income, ethnicity, political beliefs, or geolocation data) or data about companies, mostly from public records but sometimes sourced privately, and selling or licensing such information to third parties for a variety of uses. Sources, usually Internet-based since the 1990s, may include census and electoral roll records, social networking sites, court reports and purchase histories. The information from data brokers may be used in background checks used by employers and housing. There are varying regulations around the world limiting the collection of information on individuals; privacy laws vary. In the United States there is no federal regulation protection for the consumer from data brokers, although some states have begun enacting laws individually. In the European Union, GDPR serves to regulate data brokers operations. Some data brokers report to have large numbers of population data or "data attributes". Acxiom purports to have data from 2.5 billion different people. Overview Information broker is sometimes abbreviated to IB, and other terms used for information brokers include data brokers, independent information specialists, information or data agents, data providers, data suppliers, information resellers, data vendors, syndicated data brokers, or information product companies. Information consultants, freelance librarians, and information specialists are also sometimes termed information brokers. Credit scores were first used in the 1950s, and information brokering emerged as a career for individuals during that decade. However the business of information brokering did not become widely known or specifically regulated until the 1990s. During the 1970s, "information brokers" often had a library science degree; however, towards the end of the 20th century, people with degrees in science, law, business, medicine, or other disciplines entered the profession, and the line between the terms information professional and information broker became more blurred. In 1977, Kelly Warnken published the first fee-based information directory, followed by the Journal of Fee-Based Information Services in 1979 and the book The Information Brokers: How to Start and Operate Your Own Fee-based Service in 1981. Beginning in the late twentieth century, technological developments such as the development of the Internet, increasing computer processing power, and declining costs of data storage made it much easier for companies to collect, analyze, store and transfer large amounts of data about individuals. This gave rise to the information broker or data broker industry. , there is no required academic qualification for the job