LocatePLUS is sensitive to the privacy and security
concerns that individuals have expressed regarding personal
information, and LocatePLUS only distributes personally-identifiable
information about individuals in accordance with the
principles adopted by the Individual Reference Services
Group (http://www.irsg.org)
in December 1997, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
This webpage is designed to provide you with information
on the IRSG Principles and our commitment to fair information
practices.
Individual reference services and the IRSG principles
LocatePLUS is a National Information Service provider.
We offer nonpublic and public information to those entities
who qualify to receive this information under the IRSG
Principals and the Driver Privacy Protection Act (18
USC 2721, et seq).
LocatePLUS's commitment to the IRSG
LocatePLUS was founded in Beverly, MA in 1996.
We provide commercial and professional users with access
to databases of public records and business information.
This information is used to locate individuals, to verify
identities, and to clarify the relationships between
businesses, people and assets.
Our customers consist of Law enforcement agents, private
investigators, law firms, Government agents, Bail bondsmen,
Recovery agencies, and private companies. These customers
use our data for a variety of business purposes. For
example, lawyers use our databases to locate witnesses
and parties for litigation. Private investigators use
our services to locate "deadbeat" parents.
Companies and law enforcement agencies use our information
when they are investigating fraud and identity theft.
Every LocatePLUS customer is required to sign an
agreement with us that restricts the customer's use
of our data. Our customers agree to only use our data
for legal, appropriate purposes. Additionally, because
LocatePLUS is not a consumer credit reporting agency,
we do not permit any of our customers to use our information
in connection with consumer credit transactions, employment
screening, consumer insurance underwriting or residential
tenant screening.
Types of information distributed by LocatePLUS
LocatePLUS distributes public records, publicly-available
information and nonpublic information. These terms refer
to the source of the information. The following definitions
have been agreed by various information industry and
government groups:
* Public Records are compiled by various public offices
and agencies with the intent and for the purpose of
being made publicly available. Examples of public records
include real estate records, lien filings, corporate
records, lawsuit information and birth, marriage, divorce
and death records.
* Publicly available information generally originates
with the individual himself or herself and is provided
in the course of routine business transactions such
as ordering telephone service, placing catalog orders,
making retail purchases, and joining book clubs. Published
telephone numbers, household demographics, street addresses,
and church and school alumni directory information all
fall within this category. Information contained in
newspapers and magazines and on the Internet also considered
to be publicly available.
* Private or nonpublic information is not generally
available from public records or commercial sources.
Nonpublic information includes information that is protected
from disclosure by law or by custom, such as credit
reports, medical records, employment records, and income
tax returns.
It's important to note that the status of information
depends on the information's source. A certain piece
of information may be a matter of public record as well
as publicly available and nonpublic. For example, your
home address may be contained in a public record (such
as the deed to your property that is on file in your
county's property records office). Your address may
be publicly available from your local telephone directory,
and your address may be contained in a nonpublic database,
such as a credit bureau database.
Many people incorrectly believe that some information,
such as Social Security numbers or mothers' maiden names,
are always nonpublic. This is not true. For example,
while individuals may believe generally that their mother's
maiden name is a "private" fact (and while
credit grantors may treat this data as private or secure),
birth records are public record in every state. Since
birth records typically contain the maiden name of the
maternal parent, the information is not only private,
it's public record. Similarly, Social Security numbers
are often included in public records, such as lawsuit
filings, driving records and bankruptcy records.
Nonpublic data available from LocatePLUS
LocatePLUS distributes nonpublic individual identifying
information on adult individuals obtained from Trans
Union. This nonpublic information consists solely of
the following data:
* The individual's name
* His or her current address
* His or her social security number (which is provided
only to certain highly-qualified customers)
* Any previous names that he or she may have used, such
as a maiden name or previous married name
* His or her previous address
* The month and year of his or her birth
LocatePLUS does not obtain any nonpublic credit
information from the credit reporting agencies or any
other sources.
Additionally, LocatePLUS does not distribute any
nonpublic information about children or any information
that was collected solely for marketing purposes. Finally,
while the nonpublic information may contain your maiden
name, it does not include your mother's maiden name
or any other information about your parents or family.
LocatePLUS only provides nonpublic information
to qualified commercial and professional users, we do
not provide any nonpublic information to the general
public. As noted above, each of our commercial customers
has a written agreement with us that restricts the customer's
use of our data.
Opting out of the LocatePLUS database
You cannot opt out of our having your information distributed
by LocatePLUS. Public records, by law, must be available
from the official public records office to anyone who
requests them. Accordingly, because individuals cannot
opt out of public records databases generally, we do
not offer individuals the opportunity to opt out of
our public records databases. In order for any database
of public records to be useful, the databases must contain
all of the information in the public records offices,
and we do not remove or suppress any information that
is both accurate and publicly available.
Additionally, because we do not make any nonpublic
information available to the general public, we do not
offer individuals the opportunity to opt out of the
nonpublic databases. Our databases are used by investigators,
law enforcement agents and lawyers who are trying to
locate criminals, debtors and other bad actors. Accordingly,
it would defeat the purpose of our service if we gave
these types of individuals the ability to opt out of
being found.
Companies that make nonpublic data available to the
general public do offer opt outs, and, in the event
that we ever make our nonpublic databases available
to the general public, we will implement an opt out
for individuals who request it in accordance with the
IRSG principles.
Access to nonpublic information that LocatePLUS
distributes about you
We are happy to provide you with a copy of the nonpublic
information about you that is available from our system.
At this time, for security reasons, we are not able
to process email requests for print outs of personal
information. Instead, please send a written request
to:
LocatePLUS
ATTN: Nonpublic information disclosure
100 Cummings Center, Suite 235M
Beverly, MA 01915
The request must contain the following:
* Your name and complete (current) address
* Your social security number
* Your signature
* Your Date of Birth
* A check or money order for $25.00 payable to LocatePLUS
Upon receipt of the request, we will search our nonpublic
databases using your Social Security number. For security
reasons, we will mail the report to the most current
address available from the credit reporting agencies.
Reports will not be available via email or facsimile.
This policy helps ensure that your report cannot be
obtained by anyone other than you. If you believe that
we may have difficulty verifying your address, please
include a daytime phone number with your request so
that we may contact you for additional information.
If any information in your consumer credit report is
inaccurate, you will need to contact the specific consumer
credit reporting agency - please tell the agency that
there is an inaccuracy in your header information, and
ask the agency to send you a copy of your consumer disclosure.
Each agency has its own procedure for correcting its
credit reports, and this process also ensures that the
consumer credit reporting agencies will provide correct
data to others who may access your credit report in
the future. The consumer credit reporting agency may
be contacted at the following number:
Trans Union: Consumer Relations at 1-800-851-2674
connects you to a Recording that addresses requests
for copies of your credit report or you may speak to
a representative. Or visit Trans Union online at http://www.transunion.com
Please note that the identifying information in your
consumer credit report comes from you and from companies
you do business with, from credit applications and accounts.
Inaccurate information appears in credit reports when
applications are filled out improperly or incompletely
or when mistakes are made in reporting account data.
For example, if your Social Security number is 123-45-6789,
a clerk may incorrectly type this number as 213-45-6789
when setting up a charge account for you. This incorrect
number may then appear in your credit report as your
Social Security number. If the number 213-45-6789 belongs
to another individual, that individual's name and address
may get linked to you as well. (This is why it is essential
to carefully proofread all credit applications and account
statements.)
If you have any other questions about the IRSG Principles
or our commitment to fair information practices, please
contact Jim Russo at LocatePLUS by phone at (888) 746-3463
or by email at jrusso@LocatePLUS.com
