More consumers and businesses are turning to public record searches to conduct comprehensive people-related searches. Through such tools as phone lookups, data yields much more comprehensive and targeted results than general purpose search engines
Numerous providers of consumer services that enable users to search for and find public records report increases in searches as more consumers turn to public records to find comprehensive people-related data. Users often find that for people-related searches, public record data yields much more comprehensive and targeted results than general purpose search engines.
Millions of consumers are using targeted sources to find information about people. Aggregators condense data from hundreds of offline and online resources that make public records easier to find. Information that helps users assess a person's reputation, find assets, identify affiliations or relationships, uncover evidence of legal problems or conduct research on just about anything that pertains to that person.
Public records are government records. Generally, real estate records, court records, including bankruptcies, liens and judgments, professional licenses, intellectual property filings and business records, such as business filings, public company filings and UCCs, are public record. Federal or state law determines what is a public record. Because the laws of the 50 states vary, what is public in one state may not be in another. For example, under Maine law, voter registration records may be used to locate a missing heir. But records cannot be accessed for this, or any other non-political purpose, in several other states. Similarly, records can be searched for misdemeanors or felonies, but a state's criminal repository - the agency responsible for maintaining criminal histories - may bar access to official rapsheets. Information that is not part of a public record might become public through several legitimate means. A person might volunteer it. Those with a public telephone number choose (by accepting a public listing) to publish it. One of the more common ways private information becomes public, though, is through disclosure in a public record. Bankruptcies and divorce filings typically contain private information. Vehicle accident reports sometimes provide vehicle identification numbers (VIN), license plate numbers.








