Commentary: People Finders: You can run but you can't hide

(This article originally ran in Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Richmond, VA, another Dolan Media publication.)

The recent theft of information on thousands of private citizens from data compilers Choicepoint and LexisNexis shocked ordinary Americans but it did not surprise those of us in the legal information business who search for people on a daily basis. We have long been aware that there are various entities out there whose business it is to compile all kinds of personal data and make such information available to interested parties. The directory-type information - name, address, telephone number - is usually available for free on the Internet. The more complex consumer-type information, which includes social security numbers, is often fee- based and restricted to access by only certain types of businesses - law enforcement, law firms, etc.

While we will see more restricted access to certain information, the tremendous amount of personal data still available is more than adequate to track down individuals.

There is a definite art to finding people and more often than not, multiple resources will have to be used in order to piece together enough information to locate an individual. Even with all the public information available in the multitude of databases and websites, there is still not one source that will do it all. It is much less frustrating and easier on one's blood pressure if this need for multiple sources is kept in the forefront. Sometimes two, three or four sources will have to be tried in order to get the information needed.

If all you need is an address and a telephone number, do not forget InfoSpace - www.infospace.com - one of the earliest and best known of the online telephone directory type of resources. Search of the White Pages will provide names, addresses and telephone numbers. Neat features include Near Address, which will list businesses closest to the address; and Reverse Lookup, which allows searching with only a telephone number. This site also has a World Directory which provides links to similar directories for other countries.

Switchboard -switchboard.com - is another telephone directory- type resource. In 1996, Switchboard became the first provider to market a free national directory of U.S. residential information on the Internet. Searching is very basic and all that is required is a name. If no state is designated, a nationwide search is conducted. There is also a link to Maps/Directions which provides advanced mapping and driving directions.

AnyWho - www.anywho.com - is an online telephone directory from AT&T. Searching is done by individual name and a state must be designated before the search can be performed. Reverse Lookup is also provided, and there are links to other international directories as well.

If all you have is an e-mail address, all is not lost. Use Network Solutions' WhoIs directory to get address and telephone number of the domain holder. Network Solutions, who won the federal government contract in 1992 to manage .com, .net and .org domain names, is now owned by VeriSign, and has registered more than 25 million domain names. www.networksolutions.com.

A quick source for finding international addresses and telephone numbers is International White & Yellow Pages. www.wayp.com Select a region, a country and then search by name. The city does not have to be designated. This site also provides international dialing codes.

When you've exhausted all your free resources and need to use the value-added features of a fee-based source, there are many from which to choose. KnowX - www.knowx.com - provides basic information very quickly. This site, which came into being in 1997 as a service of Information America but has merged with Choicepoint, provides fast access to national public records which include death, divorce, marriage, reverse address and telephone number information. This is a subscription-based service and one must register in order to access records. But fees are charged only for the databases that are used. Before allowing entry into a fee-based database, the cost is made known up-front to the user, who can then make the determination to proceed with the search or cancel. Fees generally are still very reasonable, with individual records starting at $3.95. KnowX also provides more detailed and comprehensive information and has different subscription offers. You can check out the different offers under Pricing.

Accurint - www.accurint.com - is a favorite because of the low cost and high quality of information it provides. It is owned by Seisint which is based in Boca Raton, Fla., and was purchased by LexisNexis last year for $775 million. After the Choicepoint theft, LexisNexis announced that intruders, using misappropriated passwords and identifications from legitimate customers, had gained access to personal information on as many as 32,000 U.S. citizens. The company has taken steps to restrict access to social security numbers.

This is still a very popular database. A basic locate search costs 25 cents, and a more comprehensive one which includes property assessments, corporate affiliation, bankruptcies, license registrations, possible relatives, etc., may cost up to $6.50. The degree of separation feature that this service uses to trace possible relatives can be a particularly useful one. This is a very robust database with more than just people-tracing features.

Choicepoint - www.choicepointonline.com - is the company that has been in the headlines lately because of theft of information on about 145,000 U.S. citizens in its database. It is headquartered outside Atlanta and provides Internet access to more than 14 billion current and historical records on individuals and businesses. Searching can be done with as little information as a name or a social security number in a number of different reports. Pricing for the reports varies. This service provides a detailed and comprehensive report with information from three credit header sources. Civil and criminal court searches also can be done on individuals.

AutoTrackXP - www.autotrackxp. com - is another people finder resource which is now owned by Choicepoint. AutoTrackXP cross- references an enormous amount of data - addresses, driver's licenses, property deed transfers - and puts the data into a single easy-to-read report. It can even access real-time telephone listings and can perform on-demand court searches. Pricing is similar to ChoicePoint online searches.

Do not overlook the two big online service providers - LexisNexis and Westlaw, when looking for information on people. On LexisNexis information on individuals is located under Public Records Sources. There is a very useful feature called SmartLinx which brings together in one report all the people-finder sources in LexisNexis and also provides links to the original documents from which the information was obtained. If less comprehensive information is needed, look under any one of the public records resources which include P-Find, P-Seek, P-Search and P-Trak. These resources are combined under Allfind and EZfind. In order to use Allfind you have to have permissible use under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. www.lexis.com

Westlaw's people finder information is in its Public Records database under People Finder and includes death records, name and address tracker, name tracker, skip tracer, social security number tracker, telephone tracker and obituary pages. westlaw.com

This survey of sources is by no means a comprehensive and complete list of the people-finder resources available, but this overview should serve as a starting point from which to launch a search for particular persons.

Evelyn M. Campbell is the librarian at Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Virginia. An earlier version of this article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of the Virginia Association of Law Libraries Newsletter.

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