Broker profile
Background-Check.com
- No opt-out exists
- Not on CA register
A genuine operator, which on this list makes it unusual. Background-Check.com runs its own search, its own accounts and its own billing from a Santa Barbara, California address, its footer says it's "Powered by SearchSystems LLC", and it advertises more than 800 million criminal records updated weekly, sold at $19.95 a search with no subscription. What it doesn't have is any way for the people in those records to get out. There's no opt-out page, no deletion page and no removal instruction anywhere on the site, and the only footer link that mentions California's privacy law sends you to the state Attorney General instead of to a form.
Background-Check.com overview
At a glance
Redact's exposure rating
- Data published
- Editorial estimate
- Re-listing frequency
- Editorial estimate
- Complaint record
- Not established
- Opt-out friction
- Editorial estimate
- Operator opacity
- Mostly disclosed
- Prior data incidents
- None documented
Our editorial assessment from public sources as of August 25, 2026. Each dimension is scored 1 to 4, higher means more exposure, and the overall gauge is their average, unless a confirmed breach holds it higher. It is an opinion, not a finding about the company's conduct or legal compliance. Dimensions marked "Editorial estimate" are estimated from the kind of service offered rather than observed on this site. How we score
Complaint record isn't established for this broker, so it's left out of the gauge rather than averaged in as a number nobody researched. The figure above is the average of the other five dimensions.
What each dimension means
- Data published: how much and how sensitive the personal data they put out.
- Re-listing frequency: how quickly you reappear after opting out.
- Complaint record: the volume and pattern of complaints across BBB, Trustpilot, and Sitejabber. No listing, or a listing with no reviews, counts against the broker.
- Opt-out friction: how hard the removal process is to complete.
- Operator opacity: how hidden the operating company and its principals are.
- Prior data incidents: history of breaches or leaks of the data they hold.
- What it sells
Nationwide criminal record searches
- Operating entity
Powered by SearchSystems LLC (per site footer)
- Price
$19.95 per search · no subscription
- Records claimed
800 million+ · updated weekly
- Can you find yourself?
No · every search needs a paid account
- Public listing pages
None · no sitemap, nothing indexable
- Opt-out page
None
- Deletion page
None
- Removal in the privacy policy
Not mentioned once
- CA data broker registry
Not registered
- FCRA covered?
Says it isn't a CRA · the site disclaims it on every page
Background
Background
Almost everything on this list turns out to be a shopfront in front of somebody else's database. This one isn't. Type a name into Background-Check.com and nothing redirects, nothing carries an affiliate code and no other company's logo appears. The search posts to the site's own address and stops at a login, because searching requires an account and a payment.
- Operating entity
Powered by SearchSystems LLC (per site footer)
- Address
360 Mountain Dr Santa Barbara, CA 93103
- In business since
1997 · per the site's own banner
- Search requires
First name, last name and date of birth
- Search returns
A login page until an account is paid for
- BBB listing
The company presents itself as long established and credentialled. The banner reads Trusted since 1997, the footer claims founding membership of NAPBS, the professional body for employment background screeners, and a Better Business Bureau badge sits beside a Santa Barbara address at 360 Mountain Dr. A phone number and a support address are published. None of that is hidden, and it's the reason this site reads as more serious than its neighbours.
Set against that is a banner on every page stating that this is Non-FCRA Background Data for educational and personal use only, and that the information must not be used for employment, tenant, credit or insurance decisions. Those are the decisions the Fair Credit Reporting Act governs, and the protections that come with them are the ones a person subject to a background check relies on: notice, a copy of the report, and a route to dispute what's wrong in it. The banner means the site offers none of them; whether the Act applies depends on how a report is used.
The search form asks for a first name, a last name and a date of birth, with the date of birth required rather than optional, and offers a nationwide search area. So the buyer needs to know a birthday, which narrows who's realistically being looked up.
Nothing about you is visible from outside, and that's not reassurance. There are no public profile pages here, no sitemap and no robots file, so nothing about you can be found by searching the web. The record is still there. It's simply behind a card payment rather than in front of one, which means you can't check whether you're in it and you'll never know when someone buys it.
Data Published
Data types
Taken from the site's own navigation, which lists what a buyer can purchase. This is what the company advertises rather than what a report was confirmed to contain, because the search sits behind a paid account.
Nationwide criminal records, with a coverage map
Federal criminal records
Civil records and court records
Wants and warrants
Tenant and eviction history
Bankruptcies, liens and judgments
Terrorism watch list checks
Workers compensation claims
Education and employment history
Professional licence verification
Social security number trace
Driving history
Credit report
Asset search
Drug screening
Contact
Contacts & links
- Operating entity
Powered by SearchSystems LLC (per site footer)
- Address
360 Mountain Dr Santa Barbara, CA 93103
- Phone
1-888-717-3223 · Mon to Fri, 8am to 5pm PT
- Support email
- Contact form
- Privacy policy
- Opt-out form
Doesn't exist
Key links
The contact form has no privacy option. It makes you choose a department before it will send, and the five choices are sales, technical support, billing and refunds, account help, and other or general inquiry. Every one of them assumes you're a customer. Someone asking to be taken out of the records has to file it under other.
If you write to them, put it in writing twice. Send the request through the form and again to support@background-check.com, state plainly that you're asking for deletion of your personal information rather than help with an account, and keep the date you sent it. With no published process and no stated response time, the record of having asked is the only thing you'll hold.
Reputation
Trust signals
The Better Business Bureau gives Background-Check.com an A+, with accreditation since 2022, no complaints on file and one five-star review. Trustpilot has no page for it. That's too little to grade, so the score beside this section records the gap rather than a finding.
FAQ
Q & A
How do I remove my information from Background-Check.com?
There's no process. The site has no opt-out page, no deletion page and no removal instruction anywhere on it. We checked the obvious addresses directly and /ccpa, /opt-out, /optout, /remove and /do-not-sell all return a not-found page. The privacy policy doesn't use the words opt out, removal, deletion or suppression at any point. What's left is the contact form and the support email, neither of which is built for the request.
The footer has a CCPA link. Does that not work?
It works, but it doesn't do what the label suggests. The link goes to oag.ca.gov, the California Attorney General's explainer on the state privacy law. It's a page about your rights in general, published by the state, with no connection to this company and no way to file anything with them. Clicking it takes you off the site and no closer to a removal.
Can I look myself up to see what they hold?
Not without paying. Every search stops at a login, and an account costs $19.95 per search. There are no free preview pages and nothing about anyone is published openly, so you can't confirm whether you appear in the database at all without becoming a customer of it.
Is Background-Check.com a data broker?
By any ordinary meaning of the phrase, yes. It holds records about people who aren't its customers and sells them to strangers for a fee. It doesn't appear on California's data-broker register, which we checked against the published registry, and we make no claim here about whether it's required to be on it.
Is a report from here a background check I can rely on?
The company says not. Every page carries a banner stating the data is non-FCRA and for educational and personal use only, and that it must not be used for employment, tenant, credit or insurance decisions. The banner means the site offers none of the Fair Credit Reporting Act's protections, such as the right to see the report and to dispute an error in it; whether the Act applies depends on how a report is used.
Who runs it?
The footer says the site is "Powered by SearchSystems LLC", and the site publishes an address at 360 Mountain Dr, Santa Barbara, California, with a phone number and support address. That's more than most sites in this directory disclose. No officer is named and no state of incorporation is given.
Take yourself off data broker sites
Redact scans data broker sites from your device. The free scan shows which of your details are exposed but hides which broker lists you; Premium and Ultimate show where each listing is. They also submit removals for most brokers Redact covers and hand you the opt-out link for the rest, then re-scan on a schedule and file again if you reappear. Coverage varies by broker.
Walked in a browser. Policy and contact pages read in full, removal paths probed directly, and registration status checked against California's 549-row data-broker registry CSV.
The page provides general information, not legal advice. Redact is not affiliated with or endorsed by Background-Check.com or any other company named here. Spotted an error, or represent this company? Email support@redact.dev.