Broker profile

Search Public Records

A subscription background-report site that funnels name searches into a $1 seven-day trial converting to $29.98 a month. It's operated by Civil Data Research, LLC of Santa Barbara - a 2019 LLC behind a domain that's been live since 2004 - and the company is a defendant in New Jersey's Daniel's Law litigation. Its solicited reviews average 4.5 stars while its organic Trustpilot sits at 2.6. The opt-out is a free on-site form with email verification.

Manual removal guideVisit searchpublicrecords.com
Search Public Records homepage screenshot

Search Public Records 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

Public-records search · background reports

Operating entity

Civil Data Research, LLC

Headquarters

Santa Barbara, CA

Claimed database

160M property · 500M phone · 350M public records

Running since

Domain 2004 · LLC formed 2019

Pricing

$1 trial · $29.98/mo after

BBB

A+ · accredited since 2019

Litigation

Daniel's Law suit active

Opt-out

On-site form + email verification

FCRA covered?

No · bars credit, insurance, employment use

Background

Background

Operator paper trail

Search Public Records sells standard background reports - arrest records, warrants, liens, bankruptcies, address history, relatives - behind a name-search funnel that ends in a $1 trial. Its operator is unusually well documented for this industry. The site's own privacy page states that it's owned and operated by Civil Data Research, LLC, and the paper trail around that statement holds up.

Operating entity

Civil Data Research, LLC

Address

315 Meigs Rd, Suite A292 Santa Barbara, CA 93109

CA SOS entity

#201906710667 · formed Mar 5, 2019

Manager

Matthew Walker

BBB record

Accredited since 2019 · business started 2009 per BBB

Domain registered

March 8, 2004 (WHOIS)

The chain runs in a straight line. The privacy policy names Civil Data Research, LLC as owner and operator. The BBB profile for Search Public Records lists Civil Data Research, LLC as the business's alternate name at 315 Meigs Rd, Suite A292 in Santa Barbara - the exact principal address on the California Secretary of State filing for entity #201906710667, an active LLC formed March 5, 2019 and managed by Matthew Walker. And when New Jersey's Daniel's Law litigation came for the site's data, it was Civil Data Research that answered the suit through counsel.

The timeline is odder than the ownership. The domain dates to March 2004, the BBB says the business started in March 2009, and the LLC wasn't formed until March 2019 - whoever ran searchpublicrecords.com before Civil Data Research isn't documented anywhere we can cite.

The product is a subscription. The site's own terms page describes a $1.00 seven-day trial that bills $29.98 exactly seven days after registration and monthly after that until canceled, plus a separate ID Protect membership at $1.98 a month. That structure matches what the site's reviews complain about - a $1 or free-sounding pitch followed by charges of $30-38.

The subscription is the product. The $1 trial converts to $29.98 a month seven days after registration unless canceled, and the $1.98/month ID Protect add-on bills separately. If you only wanted one report, check your card statement.

A sourcing note. searchpublicrecords.com blocks automated access, so its policy, terms, and FCRA language quoted here was read from search-engine snippets of the site's own indexed pages in August 2026. The wording on the live site may have drifted.

Data Published

Data types

11 categories

Per Optery's broker profile, Search Public Records displays personal information from a claimed 160 million property records, 500 million phone records, and 350 million public records. Its reports pull together the categories below.

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

  • Full names and aliases
  • Age and date of birthSensitive
  • Current and past home addressesSensitive
  • Phone numbers
  • Email addresses
  • Relatives and neighborsSensitive
  • Arrest records and warrantsSensitive
  • Court recordsSensitive
  • Financial liens and bankruptciesSensitive
  • Property records and estimated home value
  • Social media profiles

Accuracy is a recurring complaint. Reviewers describe reports with old addresses, relatives they don't recognize, and promised data - phone numbers in particular - missing after payment. Aggregated records aren't verified against the actual subject.

Contact

Contacts & links

Documented channels
Operating entity

Civil Data Research, LLC

Address

315 Meigs Rd, Suite A292 Santa Barbara, CA 93109

Support

support@searchpublicrecords.com · (800) 719-2498

Additional lines (BBB)

(800) 758-2408 · (800) 759-1748 · (800) 761-1691

Opt-out

searchpublicrecords.com/help-center/privacy-requests

Policies

Privacy · Terms · FCRA notice

Website

https://www.searchpublicrecords.com/

CA corporate filing

Civil Data Research, LLC · #201906710667

BBB profile

Search Public Records · A+

Network

Loosely connected sites

Dashed lines, not filings

No corporate filing ties Civil Data Research to any other broker, and our searches found no other domains registered to it. What exists instead is a set of dashed lines. The BBB profile for Public Record Reports and SpyFly - operated by Digital Safety Products, LLC of San Diego - lists a Matt Walker as president and a Chris Seidel as manager. Seidel is the principal the BBB also shows at Public Information Services, Public Data Check and Kids Live Safe, so Public Record Reports belongs to that Goleta cluster by principal. Walker is the only thread from it to this site: the California registry lists a Matthew Walker as Civil Data Research's manager. Those may or may not be the same person; two separate LLCs filed 230 miles apart share no address, phone, or registered agent, and nothing we found links the two roles beyond the name. And Search Public Records runs the same help-center opt-out template used by Kids Live Safe and Public Data Check, Santa Barbara-area brokers that are themselves defendants in the same Daniel's Law wave. A shared template isn't common ownership, and neither is a shared surname - but if your record is on one of these sites, it's worth checking the rest.

Treat every site separately. None of these connections is documented common ownership, and no shared suppression system is documented between them. If a search turns you up on Public Record Reports, SpyFly, Public Data Check, or Kids Live Safe, each one needs its own opt-out.

Owned or operated by Civil Data Research, LLC2 entities in this network · Santa Barbara, CAExplore the full map
publicrecordreports.com
spyfly.compublicdatacheck.comkidslivesafe.com

Reputation

Trust signals

Two different stories

Search Public Records' reviews tell two stories depending on who asked for them. The 4.5-star average lives on a platform where the business solicits feedback - recent reviews carry 'Solicited' labels, and several are literal keyboard gibberish - while the unsolicited Trustpilot profile sits at 2.6 across just four reviews. The A+ BBB grade comes with paid accreditation, and the reviews on the BBB's own page complain about the billing.

TrustpilotOnly 4 reviews · organic, unclaimed-style profile2.6 / 5As of 2026-08View reviews ↗
Better Business BureauCivil Data Research, LLC · accredited since 2019A+As of 2026-08View profile ↗
SmartCustomer (formerly Sitejabber)~4,532 reviews · largely solicited via the business4.5 / 5As of 2026-08View reviews ↗

  • $1 trial converting to a $29.98/month auto-renewal that reviewers say they never knowingly agreed to

  • 'Free' or $1 pitches that end in charges of $30-38

  • Old addresses and relatives the subject doesn't recognize in reports

  • Paid reports missing promised data, phone numbers in particular

Litigation

Litigation history

Daniel's Law defendant

Civil Data Research is a named defendant in the New Jersey Daniel's Law wave - the assignment-model litigation that swept up much of the people-search industry in 2024. It's the only litigation involving the site that our research found.

Atlas Data Privacy Corp. v. Civil Data Research, LLC

Active

D.N.J. 1:24-cv-04143 · New Jersey Daniel's Law · Filed March 25, 2024

Statute

New Jersey Daniel's Law

Plaintiffs

Atlas Data Privacy Corp. (assignee) + individual law-enforcement plaintiffs

Court

D.N.J., removed from N.J. Superior Court (Mercer County) · Judge Harvey Bartle III

Status

Discovery schedule entered July 30, 2026

Constitutional appeal

3d Cir. No. 25-1563 · docketed March 31, 2025 · consolidated under lead caption We Inform, LLC (No. 25-1555)

Atlas Data Privacy, as assignee for thousands of covered persons, together with individual law-enforcement plaintiffs, alleges that Civil Data Research disclosed protected persons' home addresses and phone numbers through searchpublicrecords.com after nondisclosure requests. It's one of the roughly 140 assignment suits Atlas filed in early 2024 - the wave whose lead appeals reached the Third Circuit, which certified the core Daniel's Law questions to the New Jersey Supreme Court. This case has stayed active through all of it. On July 30, 2026 the court granted the defendants' motion for reconsideration, vacated its prior June 30 scheduling order, held an in-person status conference, and entered a fresh discovery schedule.

We have not found an FTC enforcement action, state Attorney General action, class action, or data-breach incident involving Search Public Records or Civil Data Research beyond the Daniel's Law matter as of the last-updated date below.

FAQ

Q & A

Common questions
Is Search Public Records a data broker?

Yes. Search Public Records is a subscription people-search site that compiles arrest records, warrants, court records, liens, bankruptcies, addresses, phone numbers, and relatives into paid background reports - Optery's broker profile describes it displaying data from a claimed 350 million public records. A name search funnels you into a $1 seven-day trial that converts to $29.98 a month.

Who owns Search Public Records?

Civil Data Research, LLC of Santa Barbara, California. The site's own privacy page says so, the BBB lists Civil Data Research as the business's alternate name, and the California Secretary of State filing (entity #201906710667) puts the company at the same Santa Barbara address with Matthew Walker as manager. The timeline has a gap, though - the domain dates to 2004 and the BBB says the business started in 2009, but the LLC wasn't formed until March 2019, and no record we can cite documents who ran the site before that.

How do I remove my information from Search Public Records?

Through the Privacy Requests form in the site's help center, free of charge. Keep the request type on Do Not Sell My Info, enter your name, city, state, ZIP and age as the listing has them, type in the code the site emails you, press Remove on your record, and then click the link in a second email. The site says that link is live for 60 minutes and the request isn't filed without it. The Search Public Records removal guide shows every screen. No turnaround is published; ClearNym reports one to seven days.

Why was I charged $29.98 by Search Public Records?

The site's terms describe a $1.00 seven-day trial that bills $29.98 exactly seven days after registration and monthly after that until canceled, plus an optional ID Protect membership at $1.98 a month. Reviews on Trustpilot and the BBB describe exactly this pattern - a $1 or free-sounding pitch followed by charges of $30-38. Cancel through support@searchpublicrecords.com or (800) 719-2498, and dispute the charge with your card issuer if support doesn't resolve it.

Is Search Public Records connected to MC2 Data or publicrecords.com?

No evidence connects it to either. Coverage of the 2024 MC2 Data leak names the MC2 brands as PrivateRecords.net, PrivateReports, PeopleSearcher, ThePeopleSearchers, and PeopleSearchUSA - Search Public Records isn't among them, though a few of the fifteen brands were never publicly named, so membership among those can't be fully ruled out. And publicrecords.com is a separate business with its own BBB profile in a different city - the only thing the two sites share is a similar name.

Is Search Public Records covered by FCRA?

No. Its own FCRA page states that it isn't a consumer reporting agency and prohibits using the site for credit, insurance, employment, or business transactions. That's a legal disclaimer, not a technical barrier - the reports still surface arrest records and financial data in an ordinary name search, which is why removal is worth doing.

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Last updated:

August 4, 2026 · Drafted from the site's indexed help-center pages (read via search snippets - the site blocks direct fetching), California corporate filings, BBB, and federal court dockets.