https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/04/28/editorial-delete-act-would-give-californians-privacy-protections/ > Big data is big business. An estimated 2,000-4,000 data brokers around the world have created an estimated $200 billion industry from the data they collect, largely without consumers’ knowledge. > Acxiom, one of the leading global brokers, says it has collected data from 2.5 billion consumers, which equates to roughly half of the world’s 5 billion active internet users. The data has many legitimate, useful purposes — such as understanding consumers wants and needs and improving companies’ branding efforts.