Shadow Profile
A profile a company or broker builds about a person who never created an account or knowingly shared data with it.
Full definition
A shadow profile is the dossier an entity compiles about someone with whom it has no direct relationship, assembled from other people's contact lists, third-party data purchases, tracking pixels on sites you visit, and public records. Data brokers are essentially shadow-profile machines: most people in their databases never signed up. Shadow profiles are why "I never gave them my data" is not a defense, and why deletion rights that apply regardless of a direct relationship (as under CCPA) matter.
Go deeper
Why brokers have your data →Related terms
Identity Resolution
The process of stitching together disparate records and identifiers to determine they all refer to the same person.
Data Broker
A company that collects personal information about consumers and sells, licenses, or shares that information with third parties.
Digital Footprint
The trail of data an individual generates through online activity, public records, and commercial transactions.
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