Public records
Government records that are open to inspection by law.
In more detail
Court filings, property deeds and assessments, voter registration, professional licences, marriage and divorce records, business registrations. These are public by deliberate policy, not by accident, and they are the raw material data brokers build on.
Why it matters to you
No service can delete a public record, and any service implying otherwise is misleading you. What is achievable is removing the commercial aggregations built on top of them, and in narrow cases obtaining redaction.
What to do
Understand which of your exposures are public records before you pay anyone. It changes what success looks like.
- Address Confidentiality Program (ACP)
A state programme giving survivors a substitute legal address for use in public records.
- Data broker
A company that collects personal information about people it has no relationship with, and sells it.