The private sector also saw potential value in the original TIGER linework and attributes. Thanks in part to a 1973 Census workshop entitled "Data Uses in the Private Sector," some of the major geodemographics firms of the time, such as Claritas (www.claritas.com), began providing marketing services based on geodemographic analysis of the GBF/DIME dataset. This public/private partnering continued with the release of TIGER around 1990. But as with many of life's bleeding-edge technologies, TIGER had some fundamental problems. It contained many errors and was not regularly maintained. Also, TIGER's positional accuracy was originally no greater than that of a 1:100,000 scale USGS map - an accuracy standard requiring at least 90 percent of points to be within 164.04 feet of their actual location. For many spatial applications, such as cadastral or engineering projects, such accuracy was woefully inadequate. In addition, the TIGER model was (and remains) daunting to the general public.

Recognizing the sales potential of a more accurate and easy-to-use spatial dataset, GDT, Navtech, and Tele Atlas began cleaning up and reselling TIGER data. Part of the value these private vendors added was simply compiling the entire U.S. dataset and simplifying it as needed, for use in a GIS, for instance. The other big value was improving both positional and attribute accuracy of the TIGER linework. To that end, the private firms opened field offices, built relationships with local government agencies and utility companies to obtain source material, and, when absolutely necessary, drove the roads with GPS units to further enhance the data. More commonly, though, teams of (otherwise unemployable) geographers realigned TIGER linework to aerial orthophotographs, or conflated TIGER's attributes to more accurate road geometry.