Exactis LLC is a

data broker 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 people, mostly from public records but sometimes sourced privately, and sell ...

established in 2015 and based in the U.S state of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The firm reportedly handles business and consumer data in an effort to refine

targeted advertising Targeted advertising or data-driven marketing is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting. These traits can either ...

Data leak

Exactis became notable in June 2018, after a discovery by cybersecurity researcher Vinny Troia detailed how the organization made nearly 340 million detailed records about United States citizens available on a publicly accessible

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides requested information for other programs or devices, called clients. Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending custome ...

, leaving those people at heightened risk of being impersonated, profiled or otherwise exploited through social engineering. The information has reportedly since been protected and removed from the public. However, the leak is notable due to the scale of data that was exposed, surpassing the Equifax breach which had exposed 145 million customers' personal data the year prior. Exactis had reportedly accumulated some or all of its information without the knowledge or explicit consent of the data subjects.

References

{{Florida-stub Companies based in Florida Data brokers 2015 establishments in Florida