People Data

Our People Data records are compiled from multiple authoritative sources including public records aggregators, commercial data providers, and consumer data sources. These records help identify and verify individuals through address history, phone numbers, email addresses, and associated persons.

NOTE: People search data is compiled from publicly available sources and commercial data providers. Information may include current and historical addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives, and associates. Data accuracy varies and should be independently verified. This information should not be used for FCRA-regulated purposes.

What Is People Search Data?

People search data refers to aggregated collections of personal information drawn from public records, commercially available databases, and other lawful sources. Unlike a single government database, people search data is the product of combining records from dozens or even hundreds of individual sources into a unified profile for each person. The goal is to create a comprehensive snapshot of an individual's publicly available footprint -- where they have lived, how they can be contacted, and who they are connected to through family or business relationships.

The people search industry emerged in the early 2000s as public records increasingly moved online. Before digital aggregation, finding information about a person required visiting individual county courthouses, calling phone companies for directory listings, or hiring a private investigator. Today, data brokers and public records aggregators compile this information automatically, cross-referencing records from multiple jurisdictions and sources to build detailed profiles. The result is a searchable index of hundreds of millions of individuals, each linked to their known addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and personal connections.

It is important to understand that people search data is not a single authoritative source. It is a composite picture assembled from many independent records. This means the data is only as current and accurate as its underlying sources. A person who recently moved, changed their phone number, or got married may have outdated information in one source while updated information appears in another. The aggregation process attempts to reconcile these differences, but perfect accuracy across hundreds of millions of records is not achievable.

What Information Is Included?

People search records typically contain several categories of personal information. Understanding what each category represents and where it comes from helps users evaluate the data they encounter.

Current and Historical Addresses: Address records are among the most commonly available data points. They are sourced from property records, voter registration files, utility connections, postal change-of-address filings, and commercial databases. A single person may have dozens of address entries spanning decades, reflecting every place they have lived, received mail, or registered a vehicle. Historical addresses can be particularly valuable for tracing someone's movements over time, but they can also create confusion when old addresses appear alongside current ones without clear date stamps.

Phone Numbers: Phone data comes from published directory listings, phone carrier records shared with data aggregators, business registrations, and public filings. Both landline and mobile numbers may appear, though mobile numbers are generally harder to obtain because they are not part of traditional phone directories. A person's record may include numbers they no longer use, numbers belonging to a previous holder of a reassigned number, or business lines associated with a self-employed individual.

Email Addresses: Email data is sourced from public records filings where individuals provide email addresses (such as business registrations or campaign finance disclosures), data breaches that have become public, marketing databases, and voluntarily shared information. Email addresses tend to be less reliably current than physical addresses because people frequently create, abandon, and switch between email providers.

Relatives and Associates: People search databases infer relationships between individuals based on shared addresses, shared last names, co-signers on property deeds, joint voter registrations at the same address, and other public record linkages. A "relative" in this context does not necessarily mean a blood relation -- it can include roommates, spouses, domestic partners, or anyone who has shared a household. "Associates" are typically inferred from business filings, court records, or other co-occurrences in public data.

Age and Date of Birth: Approximate age or date of birth may be included based on voter registration records, property records, or commercial data sources. This information helps distinguish between multiple people who share the same name, which is surprisingly common in a country with over 330 million residents.

How People Data Is Collected

People search data is not generated from a single collection method. Instead, it is assembled from numerous independent channels, each contributing different types of information. Understanding these channels provides important context for evaluating the data you find.

Public Records Filings: The foundation of most people search databases is government-maintained public records. These include voter registration files (which contain name, address, date of birth, and party affiliation in most states), property deeds and tax assessments (which link individuals to real estate), court records (including civil suits, divorces, bankruptcies, and criminal proceedings), business entity filings (which list officers and registered agents), and professional license records. Each of these record types is maintained by a different government agency, and data aggregators must establish relationships with hundreds of individual agencies to obtain this information.

Commercial Databases: Data brokers compile information from commercial transactions and share it with other data companies through licensing agreements. This includes catalog purchase histories, magazine subscription records, warranty card registrations, loyalty program sign-ups, and similar consumer activities. When you fill out a product registration card or sign up for a store loyalty program, the information you provide often enters the commercial data ecosystem.

Opt-In and Self-Reported Data: Some information enters people search databases because individuals voluntarily provided it. Social media profiles set to public visibility, online directory listings, professional networking sites, and personal websites are all sources that aggregators may index. When someone creates a public profile on a social platform and includes their location, employer, or contact information, that data becomes available for aggregation.

Telephone Directory Records: Traditional white pages directories, both print and digital, have historically been a major source of name-address-phone linkages. While fewer people maintain published landline listings today, the historical data from decades of phone directories remains in circulation and forms a backbone of address history records.

Understanding Data Accuracy

One of the most common questions about people search data is how accurate it is. The honest answer is that accuracy varies significantly depending on the type of information, the recency of the underlying source, and the specific individual being searched. Several factors contribute to inaccuracies that users should be aware of.

Outdated Records: People move, change phone numbers, get married, and otherwise change their personal details regularly. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that approximately 13% of Americans move each year. Data sources update at different intervals -- property records update when a transaction occurs, voter records update during registration drives, and commercial databases may update quarterly or annually. This means there is always a lag between when a change occurs in the real world and when it appears (or fails to appear) in aggregated data.

Duplicate and Split Records: When the same person appears in multiple source databases with slightly different information -- for example, "Robert Smith" in one source and "Bob Smith" in another, or with a middle initial in one but not the other -- aggregation algorithms must decide whether these represent the same person or two different people. Sometimes they incorrectly merge two different people into one record (a false positive), and sometimes they fail to connect records that belong to the same person (a false negative), creating duplicate profiles.

Name Variations: Individuals with common names present a particular challenge. There are estimated to be over 40,000 people named "James Smith" in the United States. Distinguishing between them requires additional data points like date of birth, middle name, or address history. When these secondary identifiers are missing or inconsistent, records for different individuals with the same name can become entangled.

Deceased Individuals: People search databases may continue to display records for individuals who have passed away, especially if the death was not recorded in the Social Security Death Index or if the database has not yet processed the most recent death records. This can be confusing and distressing for family members who encounter a deceased relative's information in search results.

Common Uses for People Search

People search data serves many legitimate purposes across personal, professional, and civic contexts. Understanding these use cases helps frame why this data exists and how it is typically accessed.

Reconnecting with Family and Friends: One of the most common personal uses is locating lost family members, childhood friends, former classmates, or military service companions. People who were adopted, grew up in foster care, or lost touch with relatives after a family move often turn to people search tools as a starting point for reconnection. Address histories and relative linkages can help trace a person's path over time and identify their current location.

Identity Verification and Due Diligence: Businesses, landlords, and individuals use people search data to verify that someone is who they claim to be. Before entering a business partnership, renting a property, or engaging in a significant transaction, it is prudent to confirm basic facts about the other party. People search data can help verify a stated address, confirm a person's real name, or reveal connections that might indicate a conflict of interest.

Skip Tracing: Debt collectors, process servers, attorneys, and insurance investigators use people search data to locate individuals who need to be contacted for legal or financial reasons. This process, known as skip tracing, relies heavily on address histories and associated persons to find people who have moved without leaving forwarding information.

Neighborhood Research: Homebuyers and renters sometimes use people search data to learn about the residents of a neighborhood they are considering. While this use case can raise privacy concerns, the underlying data -- property records, voter registrations, and similar public filings -- is all publicly available from government sources.

Genealogy and Family History: People interested in tracing their family tree use people search databases alongside dedicated genealogy resources to find living relatives, confirm family connections, and build out branches of their family history. Address histories can help place ancestors in specific locations at specific times, complementing historical census and immigration records.

Your Privacy Rights

If you are concerned about your personal information appearing in people search databases, you have rights and options available to you. The legal landscape around data privacy is evolving, with new laws and regulations being enacted at both the state and federal level.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): If you are a California resident, the CCPA gives you the right to know what personal information businesses collect about you, the right to request deletion of that information, and the right to opt out of the sale of your personal information. Data brokers that sell personal information must register with the California Attorney General and honor deletion requests from California residents.

Other State Privacy Laws: Several other states have enacted comprehensive privacy laws, including Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), and others. These laws generally provide residents with rights to access, correct, and delete their personal information, as well as opt-out rights for data sales. The specific rights and enforcement mechanisms vary by state.

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA): The FCRA is a federal law that regulates consumer reporting agencies. It is important to understand that people search databases are generally not considered "consumer reports" under the FCRA, which means they cannot be used for decisions about employment, credit, insurance, or housing. If you need to make such a decision, you must use a proper consumer reporting agency that follows FCRA requirements, including providing subjects with notice and the opportunity to dispute inaccuracies.

Opting Out: Most people search services offer opt-out mechanisms that allow you to request removal of your information from their databases. The process typically requires you to verify your identity and submit a removal request. You can visit our opt-out page for information on how to request removal of your data from OpenDataUSA. Keep in mind that opting out of one service does not automatically remove your information from all other services, as each company maintains its own independent database.

Frequently Asked Questions

How current is the people search data?

Data freshness depends on the underlying source. Public records like voter registrations and property deeds are updated as filings occur, which means some records may be days old while others are months or even years old. Commercial data sources typically update on a monthly or quarterly cycle. We refresh our databases regularly, but there is always some inherent lag between a real-world change (like a move or phone number change) and its reflection in aggregated data. For the most time-sensitive needs, we recommend verifying information through direct contact or official government sources.

Why does a person have multiple records or profiles?

Duplicate records occur when our matching algorithms cannot confidently determine that two sets of data belong to the same person. This commonly happens with very common names (like "John Johnson" or "Maria Garcia"), when someone has used different name variations over time (Robert vs. Bob vs. Rob), or when key linking information like date of birth is missing from one or more source records. In most cases, these duplicates reflect the same individual and can be mentally merged by the user reviewing the results.

Can I use people search data to screen tenants or employees?

No. People search data should not be used for any purpose regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), including tenant screening, employment decisions, credit determinations, or insurance underwriting. These decisions require reports from consumer reporting agencies that comply with FCRA requirements, including accuracy standards, dispute resolution processes, and notice to the subject. Using people search data for FCRA-regulated purposes can expose you to legal liability.

How can I remove my information from your database?

We provide a straightforward opt-out process. Visit our opt-out page and follow the instructions to submit a removal request. We will process your request and suppress your records from future search results. Note that removal from our database does not affect other people search services, as each company operates independently. You may need to submit separate opt-out requests to other services if you wish to remove your information more broadly.

Why does my record show an address where I never lived?

There are several common explanations for this. If you share a common name with another person, their address may have been incorrectly linked to your profile. Some addresses may reflect places where you received mail but did not reside, such as a PO box or a relative's home used as a mailing address. In some cases, a previous occupant of your current address may have their records cross-linked with yours. Data entry errors in the original source records can also propagate into aggregated databases.

Where does the people search data originally come from?

People search data is compiled from publicly available government records (voter rolls, property records, court filings, business registrations), commercially licensed databases (consumer marketing data, telephone directories, postal records), and publicly visible online information. No single source provides a complete picture -- the value of people search databases comes from combining many independent sources into a unified view. All data is obtained through lawful channels, and no information is collected through hacking, unauthorized access, or illegal surveillance.

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