An online data broker that charged consumers $10 based on the promise that it could "lock their records" so others could not see or buy them, has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its claims were deceptive and violated federal law.
The settlement requires US Search, Inc., to refund the fees it charged to nearly 5,000 consumers and bars misrepresentations about the effectiveness of any service that purports to remove information about consumers from the broker's website.
The settlement represents the latest in a series of FTC cases challenging companies' failure to honor their privacy pledges.
Purveyor of Public info
US Search is an online data broker that compiles public records and sells data about consumers to the public. The records may contain not only names, addresses and phone numbers, but also information such as aliases, marriages and divorces, bankruptcies, neighbors, associates, criminal records, and home values.
The company offered customers a variety of search services, including "People Search," "Background Check," "Real Estate Reports" and "Criminal Records/Court Records Searches." It also offered a "Reverse Lookup" service that can return the name of an individual associated with a particular phone number or property address.
Since June 2009, US Search sold consumers its "PrivacyLock" Service, which it claimed would allow them to "lock their records" and prevent their names and other information from appearing on the company's website, its search results, or advertisements for a year.
According to the FTC complaint, the claims were false. The agency contends the PrivacyLock Service:
• did not block consumers' names from showing up as an associate of someone else in a search for the other person's name;
• did not block consumers' information from appearing in a "reverse search" of their phone number or address, or in a search of their address in real estate records;
• did not work if the consumer changed addresses, thereby generating new records that would not be subject to the PrivacyLock; and did not work if the consumer had multiple records -- for example "John Smith" and "John T. Smith."
Consumer experience
Pat of Fouke, AR, says she called US Search to have her personal information removed from their website, and was told to send an email with the names and information to be removed. Shortly thereafter, Pat tells ConsumerAffairs.com, "we went back to US Search to make sure the information was still removed from the website, but to our surprise some information was put back on their website. They put our names as being relatives to other people with the same last name."
When she called back, she says she got a pitch from the company for PrivacyLock, which told her she "would have to pay them $10.00 per year per occurrence to have our information removed." Pat wants to know that since it's public information, "how can US Search legally make anyone pay them to remove information that should have never been put into cyber space without our consent."
Other consumers have written ConsumerAffairs.com regarding US Search's billing policies.
"I purchased a one-time search of a deadbeat customer for $0.95 to chase down payment," writes Lisa of Manderson, WY. "Insult to injury, the search website scammed me out of 19.95 for two months plus charged me the $0.95 for the one search. When I noticed it on my credit card statement, they would only delete one of the two $19.95 charges."
Settlement terms
The settlement bars US Search, Inc. and US Search, LLC from misrepresenting the effectiveness of their PrivacyLock Service or any other service they offer that will allow consumers to remove information about themselves from search results, websites, and advertisements.
It also requires the company to disclose any limitations on such services and provide refunds to consumers who paid for the service.
