Broker profile

Background Checkers

People Search
On the leaked MC2 server
On the 2024 MC2 leak list
Paid plans file this opt-out for you

A US people-search site registered to Private Records LLC of Orlando, Florida, and one of the 15 brands researcher JayeLTee found with users on a server exposed in 2024 whose admin accounts were @mc2data.com addresses. Functionally identical to privaterecords.net, the first-listed brand on the same filing. Cybernews counted 106 million records on that passwordless server, discovered in August 2024.

Opt out of Background Checkers Visit backgroundcheckers.net

Background Checkers overview

At a glance

Quick facts

Redact's exposure rating

Substantial

LimitedModerateSubstantialExtensive

Data published: Editorial estimate
Re-listing frequency: Editorial estimate
Complaint record: Mixed
Opt-out friction: Moderate
Operator opacity: Mostly disclosed
Prior data incidents: On the 2024 MC2 leak list

Our editorial assessment from public sources as of October 8, 2026, and our own opt-out testing as of October 8, 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

On the 2024 MC2 leak list: a security researcher listed Background Checkers among the sites with users on the exposed server. We found no filing showing who ran that server. Being on the list still holds the overall rating at Substantial or higher.

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.

Category: People-search / background reports
Operator (CA registry): Private Records LLC
Private Records LLC formed: Jul 9, 2020 · active in Florida
Domain registered: Aug 30, 2017
Headquarters: Orlando, FL (Private Records LLC)
Brands on the leaked server: 15 brands · 5 LLCs
Shared server's 2024 leak (MC2 Data): On a researcher's 15-brand list · 106M records on the server
FCRA covered?: Says it isn't a CRA · the operator answers "No" on its CPPA filing

Background

Site history

BackgroundCheckers.net was long believed to be operated by an anonymous party behind a privacy-protected WHOIS record. That changed in 2024, when a massive passwordless-database leak showed 15 brands, BackgroundCheckers.net among them, with users on one server whose admin accounts were under the @mc2data.com email domain. The researcher wrote that he didn't know whether MC2 Data owns the sites. California's data-broker registry separately places backgroundcheckers.net on Private Records LLC's filing.

Filed operator: Private Records LLC
LLC states: Florida
Private Records LLC formed: Jul 9, 2020 · active in Florida
Domain registered: Aug 30, 2017
First-listed brand on the filing: privaterecords.net

Two named LLCs surround this site. Private Records LLC (Orlando, FL), whose BBB profile lists a Vice President, files it with California. MC2 Data, LLC (Tamarac, FL) is the company whose domain the leaked server's admin accounts used. Florida's registry shows Private Records LLC filed on July 9, 2020, while MC2 Data, a Delaware company, registered to do business in Florida on February 21, 2018 and withdrew on October 4, 2024. Florida filings name HB Services Holdings LLC as Private Records LLC's authorized member, at 1317 Edgewater Dr #1255 in Orlando, and Researchence LLC, at Suite 634 of the same street address, as MC2 Data's manager. No filing shows one owning the other.

Functionally, BackgroundCheckers.net is essentially a re-skin of privaterecords.net, the first-listed brand on the same registration. Both sites (and the other brands on the leaked server) serve the same data scope, spanning names, addresses, phones, relatives, criminal records, court and arrest records, and linked social media. The shared server came to light when researcher JayeLTee found the exposed database mapping user records to 15 brands, and Cybernews documented that it exposed 106,316,633 records (roughly one-third of the US population) plus 2.3 million subscriber records.

Private Records LLC is listed as "out of business" by the BBB as of September 2026, yet BackgroundCheckers.net is still online and serving searches. Florida's registry suggests that BBB status is stale. Private Records LLC is still active there and filed its 2026 annual report, while MC2 Data, LLC withdrew its Florida registration in October 2024. The infrastructure itself is clearly still operating.

Don't confuse this with BackgroundChecks.com. BackgroundChecks.com (with an "s," no "ers," and a .com TLD) is a separate company, now part of HireRight and run by Clear Screening Technologies, LLC of Nashville, per its privacy policy. The well-known $18M class-action settlement (Thomas v. Backgroundchecks.com) was against that company, not against this site.

Data Published

Data types

9 categories

Sensitive: elevated identity-theft, doxxing, or safety riskStandard public-record field

Full names, including aliases and prior names
Current and previous home addressesSensitive
Phone numbers (landline and mobile)
Approximate age and date of birthSensitive
Names of likely relatives, household members, and associatesSensitive
Marriage / marital status
Criminal history, court records, and arrest records (when the site's scraper has found matches in court systems)Sensitive
Linked social media and dating profiles when discoverable from indexed sources
Contact information aggregated across the site's data sources

Data sources: The site states it scans "over 12 billion public records from thousands of sources." US public records (voter rolls, property, court), commercial data aggregators, and indexed social data are typical. Listings are matched on name, so common-name mismatches happen, and records may be stale.

The criminal-records angle is the sharpest risk. If BackgroundCheckers.net is publishing arrest or court data that should be sealed, expunged, or vacated under state law, document the listing with a timestamped screenshot before opting out so the evidence exists if escalation is needed later.

Contact

Contacts & links

From filings and the BBB

Operating entity: Private Records LLC
Address (Private Records LLC): 1317 Edgewater Dr # 1255 Orlando, FL 32804-6350
Customer phone: +1 (888) 270-9304
Site support email: support@backgroundcheckers.net
Website: https://www.backgroundcheckers.net/
BBB profile (Private Records LLC): Orlando, FL · listed "out of business" / Not Rated

Network

Related sites

15 brands, five LLCs

BackgroundCheckers.net's registration family is Private Records LLC's filing (privaterecords.net, PeopleSearch123, personsearchers.com). The 15 brands on the leaked server are filed under five LLCs (Private Records, Truth Now, The People Searchers, We Inform, and Infomatics), and no filing documents common ownership across them. privaterecords.net is first on the filing and functionally identical to backgroundcheckers.net.

Opt-out propagation is possible, but verify each. Because the 15 brands shared one server in 2024, suppression on one brand may reach the others (similar to how the Whitepages family shares a suppression list). None of the five LLCs has published this either way. Until confirmed, treat each brand as requiring its own opt-out request.

Related sites: the 2024 MC2 leak. Background Checkers is one of the 15 brands researcher JayeLTee found with users on one exposed server whose admin accounts were @mc2data.com addresses; Cybernews counted 106,316,633 records across roughly 2.2TB on it. Opting out of Background Checkers doesn't automatically remove you from the other brands listed below; each requires its own opt-out request.

Owned or operated by Private Records LLC21 entities in this network · Orlando, FLExplore the full map

privaterecords.net

peoplesearch123.com

personsearchers.com

Reputation

Trust signals

Thin reviews; operator flagged out of business

BackgroundCheckers.net has a thin third-party review footprint. Trustpilot shows one user-submitted review (a 1-star "rip off" complaint about an unwanted free-trial charge). As of September 2026, the BBB profile for Private Records LLC was flagged out of business, so there's no current BBB letter grade to cite. The SmartCustomer (formerly Sitejabber) category page surfaces consumer warnings about backgroundcheckers.net but doesn't show a dedicated star rating.

Trustpilotbackgroundcheckers.net · 1 review (1-star)1 reviewAs of 2026-05View reviews ↗

Better Business BureauPrivate Records LLC, the company on the California filing · listed as out of businessOut of businessAs of 2026-09View profile ↗

SmartCustomer (formerly Sitejabber)No dedicated star rating; appears in category warningsNo listingAs of Verify manuallyCheck SmartCustomer ↗

Why the review footprint is so thin: BackgroundCheckers.net is one of 15 sites that shared the server exposed in the 2024 MC2 Data leak. Consumer complaints may be spread across all 15 brand names rather than concentrated on backgroundcheckers.net specifically, which would thin any single brand's review footprint.

Litigation

Litigation history

Breach class actions dismissed

BackgroundCheckers.net itself hasn't been named as a direct defendant. But it was one of the 15 brands with users on the server that exposed 106M+ records in 2024, so the litigation against MC2 Data, LLC concerns data tied to the site.

Bujok, Jones & Smart v. MC2 Data, LLC

Dismissed Feb 6, 2025 · no class certified

S.D. Florida · Three class actions, consolidated Nov 2024 · Filed October 2024

Dockets: 0:24-cv-61864 · 0:24-cv-61978 · 0:24-cv-62006
Filed: Oct 7 · Oct 22 · Oct 25, 2024
Court: S.D. Florida
Defendant: MC2 Data, LLC
Records exposed: 106,316,633 + 2.3M subscribers
Database size: 2.2 TB

On August 7, 2024, Cybernews researchers discovered a passwordless 2.2TB MC2 Data database accessible to anyone on the internet. The exposed records included names, emails, IP addresses, encrypted passwords, partial payment information, home addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, property records, legal records, family/relative/neighbor data, and employment history. The cause was human error (misconfigured database, no authentication) rather than a hack. Researcher JayeLTee found every user record carried a brand ID mapping to one of 15 people-search sites, BackgroundCheckers.net among them, with cross-brand admin accounts under @mc2data.com emails. Three class actions were filed in S.D. Florida in October 2024 alleging breach of contract and related claims, namely Bujok, Smart and Jones. The court consolidated them under Bujok on November 20, 2024, but no consolidated complaint was ever filed. After the plaintiffs gave notice of a settlement, the case was dismissed on February 6, 2025, with prejudice as to the named plaintiffs' own claims and without prejudice as to the putative class claims. No class was certified, so there's no classwide settlement to claim from.

We haven't found a Federal Trade Commission enforcement action, state Attorney General consent decree, or California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) Delete Act settlement against BackgroundCheckers.net, Private Records LLC or MC2 Data, LLC as of the last-updated date below.

FAQ

Q & A

Common questions

Is Background Checkers a data broker?

Yes. BackgroundCheckers.net is a US people-search site that publishes background-report-style listings including names, addresses, phones, relatives, criminal history, court and arrest records, and linked social media. It's one of 15 brands researcher JayeLTee identified in 2024 as having users on a misconfigured server, its admin accounts on @mc2data.com addresses, that exposed 106,316,633 records across roughly 2.2TB of data.

Who owns Background Checkers?

BackgroundCheckers.net is filed with California by Private Records LLC. MC2 Data, LLC is the company whose email domain the admin accounts on the server leaked in 2024 used, and no filing shows one company owning the other. Florida records date Private Records LLC to July 9, 2020 and MC2 Data's Florida registration to February 21, 2018. As of September 2026 the BBB listed Private Records LLC as out of business, though Florida still shows it as active, and the site remains operational.

What information does Background Checkers publish?

The nine categories Background Checkers publishes are full names including aliases and prior names, current and previous home addresses, landline and mobile phone numbers, approximate age and date of birth, names of likely relatives and associates, marriage and marital status, criminal history and court and arrest records, linked social media and dating profiles, and aggregated contact information across the site's sources.

Can I remove myself from Background Checkers?

Yes. The removal page at backgroundcheckers.net/api/helper/optOutLight/search was rebuilt after our August attempt, when it ended on a CAPTCHA that couldn't be solved. It now offers a Remove My Information request that asks for the listed person's name, date of birth, city, ZIP code and state, plus an email address, and the site says it acts once you click the confirmation link it sends. See our Background Checkers removal guide for each screen.

How long does Background Checkers take to remove information?

The removal form states its own deadlines. Background Checkers says it acknowledges a request within 10 business days and completes it within 45 calendar days, counted from the day you submit, and that nothing is removed until you click the emailed link. Those are the site's figures and we haven't timed a request.

Is Background Checkers covered by FCRA?

Not by its operator's account. Private Records LLC answers no to FCRA regulation on the California filing that covers BackgroundCheckers.net, despite the background check branding in the name, and the platform's sites bar using reports for decisions like employment or tenant screening. That's the operator's position rather than a ruling. FCRA coverage turns on how a report is actually used, so if one was used against you in a hiring or rental decision, it may be worth raising with a lawyer. The class actions against MC2 Data, LLC in the Southern District of Florida, dismissed in February 2025, were data-breach cases, not FCRA cases.

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. Redact doesn't search Background Checkers for listings; Premium and Ultimate file its opt-out for you.

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Last verified October 8, 2026.

Removal facts brought up to date. Background Checkers has a new request page, which was walked through to its confirmation page on that date. September 22, 2026 · The BBB details rechecked on the Private Records LLC profile. Everything else dates from August 5, 2026.

The page provides general information, not legal advice. Redact is not affiliated with or endorsed by Background Checkers or any other company named here. Spotted an error, or represent this company? Email support@redact.dev.