Abstract: Embodiments of the invention are directed to managing an exchange of user profile data through an auction that controls distribution to one or more top bidders. Visiting users of a data seller's website are tagged based on the visiting user's interactions with the data seller's website. The data seller or a network provider may tag the visiting users. The data sellers submit user data and user profile identifiers to an exchange service. Data buyers submit corresponding categories of user data for a campaign, and submit bids for profile data or user data of each user. A bid is generally specified for a specific user, where the bid may be per user, per category. The exchange service associates user data provided by a data seller with categories of data requested by a data buyer, and ranks bids. The highest bidder may receive access to user data for a predefined period.