Your record was cleared. The background check didn't get the memo.
An expungement order reaches the government's copy of your record. It does not touch the private databases screening companies sell from — they bought the court data in bulk, often years before your order, and keep selling the cached version until someone serves them a formal dispute. Meanwhile people-search sites publish arrest records alongside your address with no obligation to anyone.
Fair Chance
Make background-check companies report your record accurately — or not at all.
- Coverage
- All major screening companies
- Cadence
- Re-pulled quarterly
Why the generic advice doesn't fit
Most privacy guidance is written for someone with no particular threat. Yours is specific, so the priorities change.
- There are two separate problems here: a court record that may be clearable, and commercial databases that are reporting it inaccurately. They need different instruments.
- Screening companies are Consumer Reporting Agencies, so you have federal dispute rights with a 30-day deadline — regardless of your state and regardless of whether you have an order.
- Thirteen states seal eligible records automatically and none of them notify you. You may already be sealed.
- People-search sites are not CRAs, so FCRA does not reach them. Those need removal, not disputes.
- 01Pull your own file from every major screening company. It is free under federal law and almost nobody does it.
- 02Check whether your state has already sealed you automatically.
- 03Dispute expunged and sealed entries with a certified copy of the order attached.
- 04Dispute arrests older than seven years, dismissals reported as convictions, and wrong-person matches — no order needed.
- 05Remove arrest data and mugshots from people-search and mugshot sites.
- 06Learn your state's and city's fair-chance hiring rules before the next interview.
Two fields, no account, no card. See what is actually out there before deciding anything.
Instruments available specifically to you
These carry more force than an opt-out request, and most people in your position do not know they exist.
FCRA § 609 gives you the right to a complete copy of your file from any consumer reporting agency.
FCRA § 611 requires reinvestigation within 30 days, and deletion of anything inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable.
FCRA § 605 bars reporting of most non-conviction information after seven years.
Clean Slate laws in 13 states seal eligible records automatically. Petition-based expungement is available in most others.
Fair-chance hiring laws in 37+ states and 150+ localities restrict when and how a record may be used against you.
We do not conceal a lawfully reportable conviction and no service honestly can — an unexpunged conviction is a public court record. We also do not work on roles where screening is legally mandated, including childcare, eldercare, healthcare, education, security, finance, commercial driving and federal clearance. What we do is make sure what gets reported about you is accurate and lawful, which for a great many people is the whole problem.
The sites to take down first
Free and unpaywalled, which means anyone can use them with no account and no skill. These are the real risk.
Who else we write for
- Survivors of domestic violence and stalking
- Law enforcement officers
- Judges and prosecutors
- Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers
- Teachers and school staff
- Journalists and researchers
- Social workers and child protection staff
- Therapists and mental health clinicians
- Public officials and election workers
- Executives and board members