Broker profile

Public Information Services

A subscription people-search site operated by Information Data Resources, LLC of Goleta, California. Search a name and it shows a free teaser - name, aliases, location, possible relatives, age - then sells the full public-records report behind a $1 trial that converts to $29.94 a month. Its storefront is unusually polished for the category, with a BBB A+ held since 2017, while ComplaintsBoard sits at 1.0/5 with none of its complaints resolved. A 2021 Illinois class action challenged the teaser pages themselves and was voluntarily dismissed four months later.

Manual removal guideVisit publicinfoservices.com
Public Information Services homepage screenshot

Public Information Services overview

At a glance

Quick facts
Privacy Risk
LimitedModerateSubstantialExtensive
Data published
Extensive
Re-listing frequency
Recurring
Complaint record
Mixed
Opt-out friction
Moderate
Operator opacity
Mostly disclosed
Prior data incidents
None documented

Each broker is scored 1 to 4 across the six dimensions above; higher means more exposure, and the overall gauge is their average.

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: volume and pattern of complaints across BBB, Trustpilot, and Sitejabber; no findable review presence 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

Operating entity

Information Data Resources, LLC

Headquarters

Goleta, CA

Running since

December 2016 · LLC formed March 2017

Pricing

$1 7-day trial · $29.94/mo after

BBB

A+ · accredited since 2017 · 19 complaints

ComplaintsBoard

1.0 / 5 · 0% resolved

Opt-out

On-site form + email verification

FCRA covered?

No

Background

Background

Goleta subscription search

Public Information Services runs the standard people-search playbook. Search a name and the site builds a teaser page - full name, aliases, location, possible relatives, age - then asks for a paid membership to unlock the full report. The operator is unusually easy to name for this industry. The site's own privacy pages, its BBB profile, and the 2021 Hutchens class-action complaint all identify Information Data Resources, LLC of Goleta, California.

Operating entity

Information Data Resources, LLC

Address

7127 Hollister Ave Ste 25A-314 Goleta, CA 93117

CA corporate filing

Entity 201708310355 · formed Mar 16, 2017

BBB record

Business started Dec 13, 2016 · accredited Jun 5, 2017

Membership is the whole business model. The site's own Terms of Use describe a $1.00 seven-day trial that converts to $29.94 a month exactly seven days after registration unless cancelled, or a standard membership that bills $29.94 up front and monthly after that. The 2021 class-action complaint describes the same machine - reports sold to anybody willing to pay for a monthly subscription.

Two sourcing caveats are worth stating plainly. The site returns errors to automated readers, so its own policy and billing pages were read through search-engine caches rather than directly. And the LLC's California filing was readable only through registry mirrors, so treat its last-read status - active, formed March 16, 2017 - as probable rather than confirmed. The company's street address is a Hollister Avenue suite whose numbering format suggests a mailbox-store box rather than an office.

The subscription is the product. The $1 trial converts to $29.94 seven days after registration, and cancellation runs through support@publicinfoservices.com, 1-800-617-3169, or your online login. Two BBB complaints, filed in March and April 2026, each describe recurring $39.94 charges running monthly from late 2025 into April 2026 - possibly a newer plan tier, and a repeated pattern rather than a one-off.

Data Published

Data types

10 categories

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

The teaser page shows your name, aliases, location, possible relatives, and age for free. Everything else sits behind the membership. The categories below come from the site's marketing, the 2021 complaint's description of its pages, and the opt-out guides that catalog its reports.

  • Full names, aliases, and age
  • Current and past home addressesSensitive
  • Phone numbers, including mobiles
  • Email addresses
  • Possible relatives and family membersSensitive
  • Criminal, court, and arrest recordsSensitive
  • Financial historySensitive
  • Licenses and permits
  • Career and employment information
  • Property records

Accuracy complaints cut both ways. Reviewers describe false criminal records attached to the wrong person - one ComplaintsBoard user said the site listed them "as some kind of sicko who preys on kids" - while others report paid reports missing known arrests, driver's-license data, and employment history the marketing implies. Aggregated records are messy in both directions.

Not an FCRA product. The site's own FCRA page says it "is not a consumer reporting agency" and that using its reports for employment, insurance, credit, or tenant-screening decisions is prohibited by law.

Contact

Contacts & links

Documented channels
Operating entity

Information Data Resources, LLC

Address

7127 Hollister Ave Ste 25A-314 Goleta, CA 93117

Second address (BBB)

120 Cremona Dr Ste 155 Goleta, CA 93117

Support

support@publicinfoservices.com · 1-800-617-3169

Privacy requests

privacyinfo@publicinfoservices.com

Opt-out

publicinfoservices.com/help-center/privacy-requests

Website

https://www.publicinfoservices.com/

BBB profile

Public Information Services · A+

It's a registered California data broker. Information Data Resources, LLC files with the CPPA under that name, giving privacyinfo@publicinfoservices.com, (800) 617-3169, and an address at 7127 Hollister Ave, Ste 25 A314, Goleta - the same entity the Hutchens complaint, the BBB profile, and the site's own privacy pages name. The BBB profile also lists 1-800-718-4610 as a second phone line.

Network

Sites sharing a principal

Shared principal, not shared filings

On paper, publicinfoservices.com is Information Data Resources' only property - no filing we can cite ties any other domain to the LLC, and no source we read attributes sister sites to it. What connects it to the wider Goleta people-search group is people and addresses rather than ownership. Chris Seidel is the listed BBB principal here and at Public Data Check, Kids Live Safe, and Public Record Reports, and this site's second BBB address on Cremona Drive matches the one Public Data Check and Kids Live Safe use. That's a shared-principal link, not a common-ownership claim.

Treat them as separate removals. A shared principal doesn't mean shared suppression - nothing documents a common opt-out across these sites. If your record shows on the sites below, file each site's own form.

Owned or operated by Information Data Resources, LLC7 entities in this network · Goleta, CAExplore the full map
publicdatacheck.comkidslivesafe.com

Reputation

Trust signals

A+ storefront, 1.0 underneath

Public Information Services keeps one of the cleaner storefronts in its category and one of the worst floors under it. The BBB grade is an A+ with accreditation held since 2017 - accreditation is a paid BBB program - and its SmartCustomer page shows a high score across thousands of reviews, a volume-and-score pattern consistent with company-solicited reviews. ComplaintsBoard tells the other story at 1.0 out of 5, with none of its complaints marked resolved.

Better Business BureauAccredited since 2017 · 19 complaints in 3 yearsA+As of 2026-08View profile ↗
SmartCustomer (formerly Sitejabber)~6,905 reviews · company responds within days4.3 / 5As of 2026-08View reviews ↗
ComplaintsBoard15 complaints · 0% marked resolved1.0 / 5As of 2026-08View complaints ↗
TrustpilotPage not readable · no score surfaced in searchNo listingAs of 2026-08Check Trustpilot ↗

  • $1 trial converting to $29.94/month, and charges continuing after claimed cancellation - 13 of the 19 BBB complaints are billing

  • Advertising that reads as free until the paywall - one BBB reviewer went in for promised free mugshots and found none of it free

  • False criminal records, wrong relatives, and outdated contact info attached to the wrong person

  • Paid reports missing known arrests, driver's-license, and employment data the marketing implies

Litigation

Litigation history

One class action, voluntarily dismissed

The operator has been sued over the exact teaser pages that make the site work. The case didn't get far. The plaintiff dismissed it with prejudice four months after filing, before the company had answered, and the docket records no settlement terms.

Hutchens v. Information Data Resources, LLC

Voluntarily dismissed Mar 17, 2022

S.D. Illinois · No. 3:21-cv-1487 · Filed November 24, 2021 · Closed March 17, 2022

Statute

Illinois Right of Publicity Act

Plaintiff's counsel

Edelson PC (Chicago)

Class definition

Illinois residents shown on marketing pages who never purchased anything

Current status

Dismissed with prejudice on the plaintiff's notice · March 17, 2022

Teresa Hutchens's complaint alleges publicinfoservices.com used Illinois residents' identities without consent - full name, aliases, location, possible relatives, and age on preview pages - to solicit paid monthly subscriptions, in violation of the Illinois Right of Publicity Act. The filing is confirmed through press coverage and the docket. It ended quickly. The plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal with prejudice on March 16, 2022, and the court closed the case the next day, noting that Information Data Resources had not yet answered. No class was certified and the docket records no settlement terms, so whether anything changed hands isn't public.

We have not found an FTC enforcement action or state Attorney General action against Public Information Services or Information Data Resources, LLC as of the last-updated date below, and no breach or leak involving the company surfaced in our searches.

FAQ

Q & A

Common questions
Is Public Information Services a data broker?

Yes. Public Information Services is a subscription people-search site operated by Information Data Resources, LLC that compiles public-records reports - addresses, phone numbers, relatives, criminal and court records, financial history - and sells them behind a $29.94/month membership. It's also a registered one - Information Data Resources, LLC appears in California's Delete Act registry, so the Delete Act's deletion and opt-out duties apply to it.

Who owns Public Information Services?

Information Data Resources, LLC of Goleta, California. The site's own privacy pages, its BBB profile, and the 2021 Hutchens class-action complaint all name the same entity, so the operator is well documented. Who owns the LLC is not - no public filing names its members, and the only individuals attached to it in public records hold a registered-agent role and a support-department title, neither of which indicates ownership.

How do I remove my information from Public Information Services?

Use the help center's Privacy Requests form, with the request type left on Do Not Sell My Info. It takes the name, city, state, ZIP and age from your listing, emails you a code to type, shows you the record, and after you press Remove emails a link that has to be clicked within 60 minutes for the request to count. It's free and takes about ten minutes. Our Public Information Services removal guide goes through it screen by screen. The site gives no turnaround; other guides report a few days to two weeks.

Why was I charged $29.94 by Public Information Services?

The $1 seven-day trial converts to the full $29.94 monthly membership exactly seven days after registration unless cancelled, and the standard membership bills $29.94 immediately and monthly after that. Cancel through support@publicinfoservices.com, 1-800-617-3169, or your online login, and dispute the charge with your card issuer if billing continues after cancellation. Two BBB complaints filed in March and April 2026 describe $39.94 recurring charges instead, billed monthly from late 2025 into April 2026. We couldn't confirm that as an advertised plan tier.

Is Public Information Services connected to Kids Live Safe or Public Data Check?

Not by any filing we can cite. What links them is a shared principal and a shared address - Chris Seidel is the listed BBB principal at Public Information Services, Public Data Check, Kids Live Safe, and Public Record Reports, and this site's second BBB address in Goleta matches the one Public Data Check and Kids Live Safe use. Each site runs its own database and its own opt-out, so a removal here doesn't carry over.

Is Public Information Services covered by FCRA?

No. The site's FCRA page says it "is not a consumer reporting agency" and that using its reports for employment, insurance, consumer-credit, or tenant-screening decisions is prohibited by law. That disclaimer limits how the reports may legally be used, but it doesn't change what's published about you, which is why removal is still worth doing.

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Last updated:

August 4, 2026 · Drafted from BBB filings, California corporate records, and search-cache copies of the site's own help-center pages - the site blocks automated readers.