Public Records & Data FAQs
Where does PeopleSmart get its data?
We aggregate data from dozens of public records providers, which allows us to instantly research millions of potential contacts across billions of data points. Our sources provide many types of data including phone numbers, email addresses, social media profiles, employment history, company information and much more.
How often is it updated?
Our data updates frequently (how frequent depends on the specific data source), so be sure to set up monitoring if you want to be notified when the information changes about your contacts.
How accurate is the data?
While we always strive to source and present the most accurate data possible, no data is. Information about a person comes from disparate sources and we try to match it reliably, but the source data occasionally contains incorrect information. We’re always working hard to deliver better data and a better product, so if you ever have questions about specific records, please contact our support team.
Do you provide contact data for people in other countries?
PeopleSmart currently only offers leads and contact details for US-based profiles.
How far back does the information go?
PeopleSmart’s database contains information collected from public records and publicly available data, compiled from thousands of different sources. There is no set date limit on the information.
Depending on the individual, we may have addresses that date back 20 or 30 years. Your ability to locate certain information for a specific individual in our database can be dependent on a number of factors, such as the amount of information collected on that individual by various government and private agencies, and the laws regarding public information in the state where the individual resides.
How current the information is can also depend on how often that person interacts with these kinds of agencies. Have they filled out a change of address form? Applied for a new credit card? Recently purchased a home?
We continuously strive to update and expand our databases in order to provide you with the most current and accurate information possible.
What is the Monitoring feature?
PeopleSmart is constantly updating and expanding our database to provide the most up-to-date and comprehensive information we possibly can. To stay informed of any changes in a report, you can activate the Monitoring feature, found at the top of every contact report.
You can activate Monitoring on up to 10 reports at a time. When you have Monitoring activated on a report, you will be notified by email every 30 days of any changes in the report: a new phone number, email address or job change.
Public records are always changing. The Monitoring feature is a great way to keep tabs on your own professional contact data as well as your network of business contacts.
How do I report a phone number as spam?
If you believe you received a phone number from a robocaller or telemarketer and would like to report it as spam, you may do so through PeopleSmart. Search a phone number, once you get to the report, scroll to the bottom until you reach the section ‘Comments from Other Users.’
Once you reach this section, you will be prompted to fill in a form with details about the call or a comment about the caller. You may also indicate if the number is from a telemarketer and if you received a text message from this number. Once you submit the form, your answers may be reflected in the report for that phone number.
How is the information updated?
PeopleSmart is constantly working to update and expand our database to provide the most accurate and current information we possibly can. All areas of our database are updated on at least a monthly basis, and some areas are updated even more frequently.
If you want to stay in the know, we encourage you to check out our Monitoring feature. If you have a paid subscription to multiple reports, you have access to our Monitoring feature. Activate the Monitoring feature on up to 10 reports you’ve run, to receive instant alerts every time we receive new information in the report. Monitoring will notify you by email of any new phone numbers, addresses, court records and more, added to your monitored reports.
You can enable monitoring when you are viewing the report. You will find an ON/OFF button to enable it at the top of any report and also within each section of any person report you run you will find an “Enable Monitoring” button inside a notification text box.
You can also enable Monitoring from the list of previously run reports, from your Dashboard by clicking the ON/OFF button below the Monitoring column.
Is all of this information available in search engines?
For many of us, Google is our first stop when we’re searching for information on someone. Who hasn’t googled their own name, or a friend’s name? The search algorithm makes searching for things things fast and easy. This makes many of us think that we can find anything on Google. However, a Google Search is not the same as running a background report on PeopleSmart.
Google does not search all publicly available information - it only searches information from publicly accessible websites. If information is only available for a fee or with a password, then it is generally not going to be searchable by Google. While PeopleSmart does not have access to all public information either, it does have access to these for-pay and password protected records that regular search engines don’t have access to.
PeopleSmart has access to databases that would otherwise require many expensive payments. For the price of a single PeopleSmart search, you get access to information that might otherwise cost multiple fees and require many searches. This type of information includes civil court documents and government records.
Google returns searches by relevance, but does not exclude irrelevant information. When you run a Google search for someone using their identifying information, it may return searches for people who share the same name, people who share the same birthday, or other identifying factors. The results may not be for the person that you’re actually trying to find.
PeopleSmart consolidates records about a single person into a unified report for you. This helps eliminate the overlap that can occur when looking for people that share the same name and/or birthdate. By consolidating reports by person, PeopleSmart can help eliminate this common source of confusion.
Can a person see that I searched for them?
No. Nobody can see that you searched for them on PeopleSmart.
There is no way anyone you search for on the site can see that you did so. Your search history is only viewable if you log into the platform, and can only be accessed by you, the owner of the account — unless you decide to show it to someone else.
Similarly, you cannot find out who has searched for you.