Yes, the Duke study found that researchers could buy sensitive, non-public, individually identified information about U.S. active-duty service members, veterans, and family members from data brokers, despite inconsistent buyer checks. Researchers tested broker access using U.S. and .asia domains. The experiment showed a potential route for foreign or malicious actors to obtain such data; it did not establish that a foreign government bought or used it.
What the Duke study examined
Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy technology policy program published Data Brokers and the Sale of Data on U.S. Military Personnel: Risks to Privacy, Safety, and National Security in November 2023. The five authors were Justin Sherman, Hayley Barton, Aden Klein, Brady Kruse, and Anushka Srinivasan. Duke describes the work as a 12-month project examining what data brokers collect and sell about military personnel and how an actor outside the United States might access that information.
The project was sponsored by the United States Military Academy. Duke cautioned that the findings should not be interpreted as official U.S. government policy.
How researchers tested broker access
The researchers combined a scan of broker marketing with attempts to contact brokers and analyze data they obtained. Duke says the team assembled 533 broker websites from Vermont and California state broker registries. Across those sites, it recorded 7,728 hits for the term “military” and 6,776 for “veteran.” Those are website search hits, not counts of unique people or purchased records.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →- Looked for marketed data: Researchers scraped broker websites for military- and veteran-related offers, ranging from broad audience categories to claims about identifiable records.
- Contacted brokers from a U.S. domain: The team asked about access and made purchases.
- Contacted brokers from a .asia domain: This tested whether the experience or buyer checks differed for a customer presenting as outside the United States.
- Analyzed acquired data: Researchers examined the information they successfully obtained. SecurityWeek’s November 7, 2023 account says the researchers contacted a dozen U.S. brokers.
What was advertised, purchased, and left untested
| Evidence category | What the study reports | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Broker marketing | Duke found military- and veteran-related search hits across 533 broker websites, including advertisements ranging from broad audiences to identifiable-record claims. | A marketing claim is evidence of an offer, not proof that the broker supplied that exact data to the researchers. |
| Sensitive identified records | Duke says researchers purchased non-public, individually identified sensitive information concerning active-duty personnel, their families, and veterans. | The purchases demonstrate that the researchers were able to obtain these categories of information from brokers. |
| Location information | Duke says location data was available but researchers did not purchase it. SecurityWeek separately described broker offers involving geofenced strategic locations. | The study does not show that the team acquired or analyzed location records; the geofencing detail concerns reported offers. |
| Buyer verification | Duke found inconsistent methods for checking customers, including for customers outside the United States. | The .asia-domain test demonstrated a potential cross-border access weakness, not a verified foreign-government transaction. |
What kinds of information and how much did it cost?
Duke identifies health, financial, and religious-practice information among the sensitive categories at issue. It reports that the team obtained data through brokers for as little as $0.12 per record. That is the study’s reported low price in 2023, not a current market quote or a price that necessarily applied to every record or broker.
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The 7,728 “military” hits and 6,776 “veteran” hits are counts of search results across the 533 websites, not population estimates. Duke’s reported per-record price likewise does not establish how many records exist, how many were available for sale overall, or how many were acquired by other buyers.
Did the study prove a foreign government bought the data?
No. Researchers used a .asia-domain approach to test access by a customer presenting as outside the United States, and Duke reports that they obtained data through brokers using .org and .asia domains. The findings show that inconsistent checks could leave a path for foreign or malicious buyers. They do not identify a foreign government as a purchaser or show that such a government exploited the information.
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The distinction matters: testing whether a researcher can obtain data from abroad is not evidence that a specific state actor made a purchase. The cited findings also do not provide a population-wide estimate of military-related records held by brokers or a measured count of foreign-government acquisitions.
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Why the access could matter for service members and families
Duke warns that sensitive personal data could enable profiling, blackmail, information campaigns, or other targeting of service members, veterans, their relatives, and acquaintances. These are potential harms described by the report, not consequences documented as having occurred during the experiment. The risk comes from the combination of identifying information and sensitive details that could make a person or household easier to profile or pressure.
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What the report recommends—and what it does not establish
Duke recommends that lawmakers adopt a comprehensive privacy law with strong controls over data brokers and give regulators resources to enforce it. It also recommends that the Department of Defense examine its contractual data flows to identify and potentially restrict exposure of sensitive military information to brokers.
These are recommendations in the November 2023 report, not evidence that Congress or the Department of Defense implemented them. The study’s findings also do not establish the current legal status, as of October 2026, of federal or state rules specific to these data categories.
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