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In the 1998 film “The Truman Show,” Jim Carrey played Truman Burbank, the star of the most-watched reality television show in the world. The only problem was, Truman had no idea his every move was being watched; the cameras were all hidden.

Much like Truman, consumers now live in an online world where the content they see is orchestrated and controlled by marketers and big-data algorithms that decide which products they need, which news articles to read, and which friends they should see in their Facebook news feeds. And, like Truman, consumers are often unknowing participants.

Third-party data brokers are at the hub of this data exchange. Companies like Acxiom have aggregated more than 1,500 bits of data per person for about 190 million consumers, while Quantcast describes its offering by stating, “Our data set is so extensive, it’s equivalent to having coffee with every U.S. online user every hour … We predict their next move and get you there first.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com