Broker profile
SmartBackgroundChecks
A free US people-search and background-check-style data broker that explicitly disclaims FCRA coverage, so its data cannot legally be used for employment, tenant, or credit decisions. Business start date January 1, 2014; the BBB-listed address is a PO Box in Atlanta, GA and the named VP / General Manager is Julian Burgess, who also appears on BBB filings for FastBackgroundCheck.com and FamilyTreeNow.com. The site claims nearly a billion records from 2,000+ data feeds, publishing addresses, phone numbers, relatives, and arrest-record summaries; BBB rates it B- on 79 complaints, and reviewers report the opt-out breaking and listings returning.
SmartBackgroundChecks overview
At a glance
- Data published
- Extensive
- Re-listing frequency
- Recurring
- Complaint record
- Pattern of complaints
- 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-check style
- Operating entity
SmartBackgroundChecks.com
- VP / GM (per BBB)
Julian Burgess
- Business start
Jan 1, 2014
- BBB-listed address
PO Box, Atlanta, GA
- BBB-listed phone
(800) 571-0614
- BBB rating
B-
- Self-claimed scale
~1B records · 2,000+ sources
- FCRA covered?
No
Background
Background
SmartBackgroundChecks.com launched on January 1, 2014 as a free people-search and background-check-style data broker. The site's name implies a screening service, but the operator explicitly disclaims Consumer Reporting Agency status on the homepage and terms - meaning its data is not FCRA-compliant and cannot legally be used for employment, tenant, credit, or insurance screening. Functionally it's a free people-search aggregator that presents itself with background-check vocabulary.
- Operating entity
SmartBackgroundChecks.com
- Business start
Jan 1, 2014
- Business model
Free search · ad-supported
- FCRA status
Explicitly not a CRA
- Self-claimed records
~1 billion
- Self-claimed sources
2,000+
The BBB profile lists the company at PO Box 105603, Atlanta, GA 30348-5603 - which is a private mailbox, not an operational office - and a toll-free (800) 571-0614 customer-contact number. No physical street address, no identified office, no team page on the site itself. Optery and other third-party broker registries describe the company as US-based but do not pin a specific HQ city.
What's notable about SmartBackgroundChecks is the named principal. The BBB filing identifies Julian Burgess as Vice President / General Manager. The same name shows up across five additional BBB filings for separately-branded data-broker entities, as Owner/Manager on FastBackgroundCheck.com (Boulder, CO; business start Dec 4, 2019; its BBB file showed a D- rating with 261 complaints when this was written, and read Not Rated on 2026-08-05, the file noting the business is working through previously closed complaints); as Compliance Manager on FamilyTreeNow.com (Roseville, CA; business start Jul 13, 2014; BBB B- rating with 96 complaints, alongside CEO Dustin Weirich); as Company Contact on PeopleSearchNow.com (Sacramento CA principal + Detroit MI PMB BBB listing; operated by Mississippi Tornado Alley, LLC alongside FastPeopleSearch and USPhoneBook - and notably the first BBB filing where Burgess appears alongside Robert Miller); as Operations Assistant on SearchPeopleFree.com (Denver, CO PMB; Enformion-powered consumer-facing site); and as Compliance Manager on CyberBackgroundChecks.com (Chicago IL PMB 29296 - the same PMB suffix used by FastPeopleSearch and PeopleSearchNow, strong supporting evidence of a shared back-office mail-vendor across the Burgess network). Six publicly verifiable BBB filings, six different US cities, one named individual appearing as the principal-on-paper at each.
Possible seventh connection to FastPeopleSearch (Mississippi Tornado Alley LLC). The FastPeopleSearch profile in this directory lists "Mr. Jillian Burgess" as Manager per the BBB filing. The "Jillian" spelling alongside a "Mr." honorific is unusual and reads like a Julian transcription variant - and with the PeopleSearchNow filing now confirming Miller + Burgess together on a Mississippi Tornado Alley LLC entity, the FastPeopleSearch "Jillian/Julian" listing is almost certainly the same person. If confirmed, that would tie Julian Burgess to seven separate broker entities (SmartBackgroundChecks, FastBackgroundCheck, FamilyTreeNow, PeopleSearchNow, SearchPeopleFree, CyberBackgroundChecks, and FastPeopleSearch). We have not independently confirmed the FPS transcription; treat that one as a strong lead rather than a fully documented fact.
"Not a CRA" disclaim does not absolve the broker. The CRA disclaim limits how third parties may legally consume SmartBackgroundChecks data; it doesn't reduce the privacy harm of the information being publicly published in the first place, and the BBB complaint pattern documents that downstream misuse happens regardless of the disclaimer.
Data Published
Data types
Sensitive: elevated identity-theft, doxxing, or safety riskStandard public-record field
- Full names, including aliases and prior names
- Address history (current and previous home addresses)Sensitive
- Phone numbers (landline and mobile)
- Email addresses
- Names of likely relatives and household associatesSensitive
- Social-network profile links when discoverable
- Arrest records and other public criminal-record summariesSensitive
- Approximate age and location historySensitive
- Reverse lookups: name, address, phone
Data sources (per the site's own marketing language): "nearly a billion public records from more than 2,000 verified data sources." Records are not verified against the actual subject and may be stale, mismatched, or attributed to the wrong person. The presence of arrest-record summaries on a free-search site that is not FCRA-compliant is a notable privacy concern - the same data shown on consumer screening products would carry FCRA dispute and accuracy obligations, but SmartBackgroundChecks has explicitly disclaimed that coverage.
Contact
Contacts & links
- Operating entity
SmartBackgroundChecks.com
- BBB-listed address
PO Box 105603 Atlanta, GA 30348-5603
- BBB-listed phone
- Opt-out / removal page
Network
Domains sharing a principal
SmartBackgroundChecks does not publish a corporate family-tree, but the named principal Julian Burgess appears across separate BBB filings for six distinct broker domains in six different US cities. These are not formally branded as sister sites - just entities sharing the same named principal (and, in three cases, identical PMB suffix #29296).
The Julian Burgess pattern across BBB filings is observable in the public BBB record itself; we have not located corporate filings that formally link these entities under a parent holding company. The relationship is named-principal-on-paper, not formally-disclosed corporate-family.
Related broker network: Julian Burgess multi-broker network
SmartBackgroundChecks is one of several brands all named Julian Burgess as a principal (Compliance Manager, General Manager, Operations Assistant) on their respective BBB filings, in different US cities. Separately, SmartBackgroundChecks is one of the ten domains on Mississippi Tornado Alley, LLC's California filing, whose opt-out the operator says applies across all ten for the sale of personal information. We have not verified that a removal here reaches any of them, and the Burgess-named brands are not the same set as the ten - so run each brand's own opt-out below and re-check.
Reputation
Trust signals
SmartBackgroundChecks does not have a dedicated Trustpilot or Sitejabber profile that we could locate - third-party review coverage is essentially BBB-only. The BBB rates the company B- based on 79 three-year complaints with 1 unresolved. The substantive complaint themes mirror what we see on other people-search brokers, meaning unauthorized publication of personal data and removal requests that go nowhere.
Personal information (name, full address, phone, relatives, arrest record summaries) published without consent
Opt-out requests submitted but not processed; opt-out function described by complainants as broken
Inaccurate or stale records linked to the wrong people
Belief that the site is being used for screening purposes despite the FCRA disclaim
Profiles reappearing weeks or months after a successful opt-out
Common complaint themes (BBB customer reviews):
Litigation
Litigation history
We have not located a Federal Trade Commission enforcement action, state Attorney General consent decree, California Privacy Protection Agency Delete Act settlement, or named class action specifically captioned against SmartBackgroundChecks.com or Julian Burgess as of the last-updated date below. The BBB B- rating reflects complaint patterns, not litigation. BBB complainants have expressed interest in a class-action posture given the volume of complaints, but no filed case has surfaced in our research.
The "not a CRA" framing is itself a litigation-avoidance posture: by explicitly disclaiming FCRA coverage on its marketing materials, SmartBackgroundChecks tries to limit exposure to FCRA-based consumer suits that have hit other background-style brokers.
FAQ
Q & A
Is SmartBackgroundChecks a data broker?
Yes, despite the name. SmartBackgroundChecks is a free US people-search broker that explicitly disclaims Consumer Reporting Agency status. The site name implies a screening service but the operator explicitly disclaims FCRA coverage. Business started January 1, 2014, and the site claims nearly a billion public records from over 2,000 data feeds. BBB rates it B- with 79 complaints over the past three years.
Who owns SmartBackgroundChecks?
SmartBackgroundChecks.com is operated under a non-public LLC name. The BBB filing names Julian Burgess as Vice President and General Manager - the same Julian Burgess named as principal across six separately-branded broker BBB filings in six different US cities (Atlanta, Boulder, Roseville, Sacramento/Detroit, Denver, and Chicago). The BBB address is a PO Box in Atlanta, GA (PO Box 105603), not an operational office.
What information does SmartBackgroundChecks publish?
SmartBackgroundChecks publishes full names and aliases, address history including current and previous home addresses, landline and mobile phone numbers, email addresses, likely relatives and household associates, social-network profile links when discoverable, arrest records and other public criminal-record summaries, approximate age and location history, and reverse lookups by name, address, or phone.
Can I remove myself from SmartBackgroundChecks?
Yes. SmartBackgroundChecks offers an opt-out at smartbackgroundchecks.com/optout. BBB customer reviews describe the opt-out function as broken in some cases and profiles reappearing weeks or months after a successful removal. Plan to verify your record is removed and resubmit if it resurfaces. See our SmartBackgroundChecks removal guide for step-by-step instructions.
How long does SmartBackgroundChecks take to remove information?
SmartBackgroundChecks does not publish a specific SLA on its opt-out page. BBB complaints describe opt-out requests submitted but not processed and profiles reappearing later, so real-world processing time is variable. Allow several business days and check back to confirm suppression.
Is SmartBackgroundChecks covered by FCRA?
No. SmartBackgroundChecks explicitly disclaims being a Consumer Reporting Agency under the FCRA on its homepage and terms. Its data is not FCRA-compliant and cannot legally be used for employment, tenant, credit, or insurance screening. This disclaim limits how third parties may legally consume the data but does not reduce the underlying privacy exposure.
Take yourself off data broker sites
Redact scans 120+ data broker sites from your device, finds where your details are listed, and submits the removal requests for you. If a broker relists you, it files again.
May 22, 2026