In April 2018, Adnan (a pseudonym) was unjustly arrested in Newark, New Jersey, due to an incorrect arrest warrant. A brief stint in prison led the criminal court judge to dismiss the case and turn over Adnan’s arrest records. A few days later, Adnan started receiving mysterious text messages from several “reputation management” companies promising to help him remove photos of his mug from the internet. A few days later that, he received an email from a company that specializes in “deleting content related to arrests.” Confused, Adnan contacted state and local police departments to make sure the court had received his deportation order. It does, but the Adnan arrest data is already in the hands of data brokers.
Each three seconds, a person was arrested in the United States, mainly for low level problems such as drug possession or disorderly behavior. Once the person is arrested, they may or may not be charged by the prosecutor, and even if they are charged, the case can end in dismissal. This will be the end of the story.
But for the millions of people arrested each year, details of their arrest or criminal charges are visible in the digital space as their records are aggregated and sold to brokers. data. Criminal records — which can include electronic criminal court records, public prisons, and prison lists and sex offender registries — are extremely useful to the data brokerage industry because they are cheap and filled with detailed personal information, including full names, aliases, dates of birth, home addresses, and photos of those arrested. Brokers then combine this data with consumer data to create profiles that are used for both advertising and risk prediction.
The details of the arrest — even if the person is ultimately not charged with a crime — can ultimately be used for background screening reports in the employment and housing sectors, as fodder on the internet. the internet or as part of risk forecasting models that can determine a person’s credit or insurance coverage.
A person was once arrested also became a topic for predatory businesses, such as reputation management and offering hot takedown services or high-interest loans, targeting people who’ve gotten through the legal system. The home address and photograph of the detainee are available to a wide range of organizations that purchase access to personal data, including private debt collectors, facial recognition software company, police station in other jurisdictions, and Immigration and Customs.
Criminal records are also extremely valuable to the amorphous “people-finding” industry, where companies buy, cut, and aggregate public court records that are then sold in reports to clients. curious consumers looking for background information. These services are often advertised in search results for a person’s name, bringing click-to-click Google to tantalize you to learn more about your new coworker or date.
All this is possible because data brokerage is a practice is barely controlled United States. Data brokerage and people search website operate outside of federal regulations such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and is in fact covered by meaningful transparency laws. For example, because these people search sites are public profiling — and don’t offer “official” background check techniques — they don’t follow any standards for accuracy or reliability. integrity of the data and it is nearly impossible for one to obtain these deleted or corrected reports, even if they are tied to their internet search results.
