How Much Does Your Personal Data Sell For? The Real Cost of Data Brokers
Your Social Security number is worth less than a cup of coffee.
On dark web marketplaces, an SSN trades for somewhere between $1 and $6. Your full identity package — name, address, SSN, date of birth, and mother's maiden name — goes for $20 to $100. Your medical records, on the other hand, can fetch $250 to $310 each.
These aren't hypothetical numbers. They're the going rates in a thriving underground economy that processed 278.8 million victim notices from 3,322 confirmed U.S. data breaches in 2025 alone, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.
Here's the full picture of what your data is worth — and what it actually costs you.
The Dark Web Price List
The prices below reflect documented marketplace listings compiled from cybersecurity research and dark web monitoring reports. Ranges vary by freshness, completeness, and the victim's financial profile.
Identity Documents
| Data Type | Dark Web Price |
|---|---|
| Social Security Number | $1 - $6 |
| Driver's license scan | $5 - $25 |
| Passport scan | $10 - $15 |
| Full identity package ("fullz") | $20 - $100+ |
| Fullz with high credit score | $60 - $100+ |
Financial Credentials
| Data Type | Dark Web Price |
|---|---|
| Credit card number (with CVV) | $5 - $25 |
| Credit card with full details | $15 - $40 |
| Bank login credentials | $200 - $1,000+ |
| PayPal account credentials | $30 - $100 |
| Cryptocurrency wallet keys | $100 - $1,000+ |
Medical and Insurance
| Data Type | Dark Web Price |
|---|---|
| Medical record (single) | $250 - $310 |
| Health insurance credentials | $50 - $200 |
| Prescription history | $25 - $75 |
Digital Accounts
| Data Type | Dark Web Price |
|---|---|
| Email account credentials | $1 - $15 |
| Social media account | $5 - $25 |
| Streaming service login | $1 - $10 |
| Cloud storage credentials | $5 - $30 |
Why Medical Records Are Worth 50x More Than Your SSN
The price disparity reveals how criminals actually use stolen data. An SSN is cheap because the market is flooded — hundreds of millions have been exposed in breaches. But an SSN alone has limited utility without supporting information.
Medical records command premium prices because they contain everything a criminal needs in one package: your name, address, date of birth, SSN, insurance information, and enough personal details to pass identity verification questions. A single medical record can be used for:
- Insurance fraud — filing false claims worth thousands
- Prescription fraud — obtaining controlled substances
- Tax fraud — filing fraudulent returns
- Synthetic identity creation — combining real and fake data to create new "people"
The damage from medical identity theft averages over $13,000 per victim to resolve, according to the Ponemon Institute, and can take months or years to untangle.
What Your Data Actually Costs You
The gap between what your data sells for and what it costs you to recover is staggering.
The $6 SSN That Costs $1,000+
When someone buys your SSN for $6 and uses it to open a credit card, you're looking at:
- Average fraud amount: $1,500 - $5,000+ per account
- Time to resolve: 100-200 hours of phone calls, paperwork, and disputes
- Credit score damage: 100+ point drop that takes years to rebuild
- Out-of-pocket costs: $500 - $1,000+ in legal fees, notarization, and certified mail
The $200 Bank Login That Drains Your Account
Stolen bank credentials at $200 routinely lead to:
- Direct theft: Average unauthorized transfer of $3,000 - $10,000
- Recovery time: 2-6 weeks for banks to investigate and restore funds (if they do)
- Cascading failures: Bounced checks, missed payments, overdraft fees
- Account closure: Many banks close compromised accounts, disrupting auto-payments
The $100 Fullz Package That Becomes a New "You"
A complete identity package enables:
- Tax refund fraud: Average fraudulent refund of $5,000+
- Loan fraud: Personal loans and auto loans in your name, averaging $10,000+
- Utility fraud: Services opened in your name, sent to collections when unpaid
- Criminal identity fraud: Someone arrested using your identity, leaving you with a record
The Data Broker Supply Chain
Dark web prices are just the visible tip of a much larger data economy. The data broker industry — the legal, above-board market for personal information — is worth over $250 billion annually. Data brokers operate in the gap between what's technically legal and what most people would consider acceptable.
Here's how the pipeline works:
Stage 1: Collection
Data brokers vacuum up information from public records, social media profiles, purchase histories, app usage data, location tracking, and website cookies. A single data broker may hold profiles on 200+ million Americans.
Stage 2: Aggregation
Raw data points are combined, cross-referenced, and enriched to build comprehensive profiles. Your grocery store loyalty card data gets merged with your property records, voting history, and social media activity to create a detailed picture of who you are.
Stage 3: Packaging
Profiles are segmented and packaged for different buyers. Marketing lists might sell for $0.005 to $0.10 per name. Detailed individual reports sell for $0.50 to $5.00. Real-time data feeds for advertising can generate $0.01 to $0.03 per impression, millions of times per day.
Stage 4: Resale and Leakage
Data passes through multiple hands. Each resale increases the attack surface. Supply chain breaches — which doubled to 1,251 incidents in 2025 — frequently compromise data broker databases, pushing legally-collected personal information directly onto dark web marketplaces.
This is the critical connection most people miss: data brokers don't just sell your data to marketers. Their databases are high-value targets for criminals. When a data broker gets breached, your legally-collected profile becomes dark web inventory.
The Math That Should Change Your Mind
Let's put the economics in personal terms.
The average cost of identity theft to a U.S. victim is approximately $1,200 in direct costs plus 200+ hours of recovery time. For the 278.8 million victim notices issued in 2025, that represents an enormous aggregate cost to individuals.
Meanwhile, the average cost of a data breach to the affected company was $10.22 million in 2025, according to IBM's annual study. Companies that deployed AI-powered security tools cut their breach lifecycle by 80 days and saved approximately $1.9 million compared to those without.
Now consider the cost of prevention:
| Monthly Cost | What You Get |
|---|---|
| ~$6.67/mo (Sirveil annual plan, $79.99/yr) | Continuous data broker scanning, automated removal, re-listing monitoring, FOIA requests |
| $7.99/mo (Sirveil monthly plan) | Same coverage, month-to-month flexibility |
That's $79.99 per year on the annual plan. Compare that to:
- A single identity theft incident: $1,200+ in direct costs
- One fraudulent credit card: $1,500 - $5,000 in charges
- Medical identity theft: $13,000+ average to resolve
- The time cost of recovery: 200+ hours (worth $5,000+ at median hourly wages)
The ROI isn't even close. Data broker removal is one of the highest-return personal security investments you can make.
Why Most People Underestimate Their Exposure
The problem with data broker exposure is that it's invisible until something goes wrong. You don't get a notification when a data broker adds you to their database. You don't get an alert when your profile is sold. You only find out when a credit card you didn't apply for shows up on your credit report.
By that point, the damage is done, and you're spending hundreds of hours cleaning up a mess that started with a $6 transaction you never knew about.
What Sirveil Does Differently
Sirveil approaches this problem from the prevention side. Instead of waiting for the damage and then reacting, Sirveil:
- Scans data broker databases using AI-powered matching to find your exposed personal information
- Submits removal requests automatically, leveraging privacy laws across 20+ states
- Monitors for re-listing — because 30-40% of removed data reappears within 90 days
- Files FOIA requests to discover what federal agencies hold about you
- Reports transparently on what was found, what was removed, and what came back
Your data has a price. Someone is already profiting from it. The question is whether you spend a few dollars a month to control the supply, or thousands of dollars later to clean up the consequences.
Sirveil is an AI-native data broker removal app that scans, removes, and monitors your personal data across the web. Plans start at $7.99/month or $79.99/year. Available now on Android via Google Play — coming soon to iOS. Learn more at sirveil.ai.