Holiday shopping data brokers track your every move this December
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If the ads you see in December seem a little too specific, you’re not imagining it.
The holiday shopping season is the busiest time of year for retailers and data brokers. These companies track, collect and sell your personal information discreetly. Every search, click, cart addition, and purchase populates a digital shopping profile linked to your name, phone number, email, and address.
If you don’t clean it up before the end of the year, this profile will follow you until 2026. It fuels more scam calls, targeted ads, identity theft attempts, and privacy risks that you never agreed to. Here’s how your profile is formed, why data brokers want it, and how to clear it quickly.
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FBI WARNS EMAIL USERS AS HOLIDAY SCAMS INCREASE
Your digital shopping profile is formed every time you browse, click or purchase during the holiday season. (iStock)
Your digital purchasing profile is formed as soon as you shop online
Your profile begins to form the second you browse Amazon, Target, Sephora, Walmart, or any online store. Each interaction adds new data points, including:
- Articles you viewed
- Items you added to your cart
- Purchases and near-purchases
- Shipping and billing addresses
- Total expenses
- Favorite brands
- Device type and browser
- IP address and physical location
Activity peaks in November and December. You are looking for gifts, deals, decorations and electronics. Data brokers are monitoring this increase and collecting more aggressively.
How data brokers get your information
Data brokers collect your personal information in several places at once. Here are the most common sources.
1) Retailers send your purchase data to third parties
Most retailers use analytics, advertising or measurement partners. These partners are often data brokers. The more companies that process your information, the higher the risk of exposure.
Marketing tools can analyze personal details such as age, race, gender, location and purchasing habits. Even without clear consent, partners often receive:
- Complete purchase histories
- Timestamps
- Product categories
- Loyalty account details
Some stores even share in-store behavior when you scan a loyalty card.
2) Shopping apps track more than just what you buy
Apps from Amazon, Temu, Walmart, SheinTarget and others track everything you do. They often collect:
- Real-time location
- Device data
- Contact lists if allowed
- Scan Patterns
- Time spent viewing specific items
This behavioral data becomes extremely valuable to data brokers. It also helps scammers understand how to target you.
Data brokers collect this activity from retailers, apps and tools to create a detailed record of your habits. (iStock)
3) Price comparison tools copy your browsing habits
Browser plugins that offer price drops or corresponding offers often collect much more than expected. An FTC investigation found that they can capture details ranging from location and demographics to mouse movements.
Data points like these are packaged, sold and added to your digital shopping profile. Fraudsters can then create very targeted attacks.
What Scammers Can Do With Your Digital Shopping Profile
Fraudsters use these profiles to launch more convincing attacks during the holiday season. By accessing your data, they can:
- Send fake order confirmations
- Running refund scams
- Sending fraudulent delivery text messages
- Committing identity theft
- Selling your information to other criminals
If you interact with a scam even once, your profile may be marked as verified. This makes you a priority target for future attacks.
PROTECT YOUR DATA BEFORE THE HOLIDAY SHOPPING SCAM STRIKE
Why December is the best month to delete your data
Every January brings a surge in scams, including refund scams, account update scams, IRS scams, Medicare scams, and subscription renewal scams. Many of these attacks rely on holiday shopping data collected in previous weeks.
If you delete your data now, you reduce:
- Fraudulent calls
- Spam emails
- Targeted phishing attempts
- The number of companies holding your personal information
Data brokers must delete your information once you request it. Acting now limits how much of your 2025 business they can store and resell.
WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING ON THE DARK WEB AND HOW TO STAY SAFE
However, manually deleting your data is almost impossible. You will need to contact and send unsubscribe requests to:
- People search sites
- Marketing data brokers
- Retail Data Aggregators
- Ad Targeting Providers
- Purchasing Analytics Platforms
- Credit-related identity brokers
One at a time.
The Fastest Way to Delete Your Digital Shopping Profile
This is why I recommend using an automated data deletion service. They remove your exposed data from hundreds of data broker sites and continue to monitor for new threats.
Although no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the Internet, a data deletion service is definitely a wise choice. They’re not cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically deleting your personal information across hundreds of websites. This is what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the Internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of fraudsters cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.
Check out my top picks for data deletion services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already available on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.
Deleting your data in December reduces scams, removes targeted tracking, and protects your privacy as we approach the new year. (iStock)
Get a free analysis to find out if your personal information is already available on the web: Cyberguy.com.
Kurt’s Key Takeaways
Your digital shopping profile may seem invisible, but it shapes the ads you see, the scams you receive, and how your personal information is exposed. The holiday season gives data brokers more information in two months than they collect during the rest of the year. Take advantage of December to clean it. With a few smart steps and an automated data deletion service, you can enter 2025 with fewer scams, fewer trackers, and more control over your privacy.
What part of your digital shopping profile surprised you the most after learning how data brokers track you? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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