To find information on someone legally, start with free government public records, then move to search engines and social media, paid people-search sites, a Freedom of Information Act request, or a licensed private investigator as the situation demands. Each step opens more doors, and a few federal laws draw hard lines you cannot cross without risking prison time or civil liability.
Start With Free Public Records
Public records come straight from government offices, which makes them more reliable than anything a third-party site will sell you. Several categories are worth checking depending on what you’re after.
Vital records — birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates — sit with state vital records departments or county clerks. You need to know the state or county where the event happened to write to the right office.1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Where to Write for Vital Records Certified copy fees usually run between $2 and $35. These records confirm full legal names, dates of birth, and family ties.
Property records show ownership history, deed transfers, mortgage amounts, and assessed values. County recorder or assessor offices maintain them, and many now run free online search portals. A property search can confirm someone’s address and hint at their financial picture.
Court records cover civil lawsuits, criminal cases, family law matters, and probate. Most state courts publish case indexes online with varying detail. For federal matters, the PACER system opens up appellate, district, and bankruptcy court records to anyone with an account.2United States Courts. Find a Case (PACER) PACER charges $0.10 per page, capped at the price of 30 pages per document.3United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule Public access terminals at any federal courthouse clerk’s office are free to use.
Professional licenses for doctors, lawyers, contractors, and real estate agents are searchable through state licensing board websites. Records show license status, disciplinary actions, and sometimes a business address.
Voter registration records are held by each state and are generally open for public inspection.4U.S. Department of Justice. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 Access rules and allowed uses differ by state, but the records typically reveal name, address, and sometimes party affiliation.
Free Federal and State Databases
The Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator covers anyone held in federal custody since 1982. Searches by name or registration number return age, release date, and current facility.5Federal Bureau of Prisons. Inmate Locator This tool only covers federal inmates; state prisons and county jails run their own search tools, usually on their department of corrections websites.
The National Sex Offender Public Website searches every state registry at once, by name or zip code.6NSOPW. Search Public Sex Offender Registries It’s one of the few tools that consolidates state data into a single query.
Most states run their own online portals for criminal case searches, business entity lookups, and UCC filings. A search along the lines of “[state name] court records search” or “[state name] business entity search” usually leads to the right place.
Search Engines and Social Media
A general web search is the fastest way to surface what’s already public. Put the full name in quotation marks to force exact matches, then add a known city, employer, or school to cut the noise. Try variations too. Maiden names, nicknames, middle initials. Someone known as “Mike” at work may show up in records as “Michael.”
Social media can reveal where someone lives, where they work, who they spend time with, and what they care about. Many profiles are public by default, and people share more than they realize. Searching a known username across platforms often turns up accounts a name search misses. Deleted posts sometimes survive in cached versions or on web archive tools that snapshot public pages over time.
Reliability is another matter. People curate profiles, use fake names, and let old accounts sit untouched for years. Treat what you find as a lead to verify through official records, not as confirmed fact.
People Search Sites and Paid Reports
Aggregator websites pull together government records, phone directory data, and online sources into consolidated profiles. A free search usually returns basic details: current and past addresses, phone numbers, approximate age, and names of possible relatives.
Paid reports go further, sometimes including criminal records, property ownership, and court filings. Quality varies widely between providers, and the data isn’t always current or complete. People pay for a report and assume it’s the full picture, when it may be drawing from stale sources or skipping whole jurisdictions. Use these services as a starting point for leads, then confirm anything important through the actual government records.
FOIA for Federal Agency Records
If what you need involves a federal agency — someone’s dealings with a regulator, records about a government employee’s official duties, or agency correspondence — a Freedom of Information Act request can get at it.
Anyone can file. There is no required form. You describe the records you want in writing and send the request to the relevant agency’s FOIA office. Most agencies accept requests through FOIA.gov or by email, and sending your request directly to the right office speeds things up.7FOIA.gov. Frequently Asked Questions
Agencies have 20 working days to respond after receiving a request, though the deadline can be extended for large volumes or when other agencies need to be consulted. If your request is denied, you have at least 90 days to appeal to the head of the agency.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 552 – Public Information
FOIA has exemptions. Personnel files, medical records, and other documents touching on personal privacy can be withheld when the agency finds that release would be an unwarranted invasion of privacy. Expect to see some material blacked out. FOIA only reaches federal agencies; most states have their own open records laws with different rules and timelines.
When to Hire a Private Investigator
When your own searches stall, a licensed private investigator can push further. PIs have access to commercial databases the general public doesn’t, and they can conduct surveillance, interview witnesses, and dig into records across multiple jurisdictions. Common reasons to hire one include locating a missing person, gathering evidence for a lawsuit, investigating suspected fraud, or running due diligence before a business deal.
A reputable investigator will be upfront about what’s legal and what isn’t. If one offers to get you phone records, bank statements, or someone’s email access, walk away. Those methods are crimes, and any PI offering them is either lying about how they’d do it or committing offenses on your behalf. Hourly rates commonly run from $50 to $150, depending on complexity and location.
Background Check Services and the FCRA
Formal background check services package criminal records, credit history, employment verification, and education records into structured reports. Employers, landlords, and volunteer organizations use them regularly. You can’t run one on just anyone, though. Federal law controls who gets a report and why.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act restricts when a consumer reporting agency may release someone’s report.9Federal Trade Commission. Fair Credit Reporting Act A report may only go out when the requester has a recognized reason, such as evaluating a person for credit, employment, insurance, a government benefit, or a business transaction the consumer initiated.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
Consent rules depend on the purpose. For employment screening, an employer must give the candidate a standalone written disclosure that a report may be obtained and must get written authorization before pulling it.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports For credit, insurance, and other permissible purposes, the reporting agency only needs to verify a legitimate reason; no consumer consent is required.
Obtaining a consumer report without a permissible purpose is illegal. A person who knowingly does so faces civil liability of at least $1,000 per violation.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance Personal curiosity is not a permissible purpose.
What You Cannot Legally Do
The line between researching someone and committing a federal crime is sharper than most people realize. A few statutes carry real prison time, and not knowing about them is not a defense.
Accessing Someone’s Accounts
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act makes it a federal offense to access a computer without authorization or to exceed authorized access to obtain information. That covers logging into someone’s email, social media, or bank account without permission, even if you know or guess the password. A first offense carries up to one year in prison, rising to five years if the access was for financial gain or in furtherance of another crime.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1030 – Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Computers
Pulling DMV Records
The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act bars state DMVs from releasing personal information from motor vehicle records except for narrow purposes such as vehicle safety, law enforcement, insurance claims, or verifying information a person already gave to a business.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2721 – Prohibition on Release and Use of Certain Personal Information from State Motor Vehicle Records You cannot ask a DMV for someone’s home address from their registration. Knowing violations carry criminal fines, and DMVs with a pattern of noncompliance face civil penalties of up to $5,000 per day.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2723 – Penalties
Pretexting for Financial Records
Federal law prohibits getting someone’s bank or financial records by pretending to be the account holder, misrepresenting your identity to an employee, or presenting forged documents. It also bars hiring someone else to do the pretexting for you.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 6821 – Privacy Protection for Customer Information of Financial Institutions
Stalking
Using information-gathering to harass someone crosses into federal stalking territory. Using the internet, email, or other interstate communication to conduct surveillance or harassment that causes a reasonable fear of serious injury or substantial emotional distress is a federal crime.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261A – Stalking The base penalty is up to five years in prison, rising to 10 years if serious bodily injury results and up to life if the victim dies. Stalking that violates a restraining order carries a mandatory minimum of one year.17Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261 – Interstate Domestic Violence
Ask People Who Know Them
Sometimes the most efficient path is the obvious one. Mutual friends, former coworkers, and family members may know exactly where someone is and what they’re up to. No database captures that. If the point is to reconnect with someone from your past, a shared contact can also gauge whether the person wants to be found before you spend hours on a deeper search. That step avoids showing up in someone’s life uninvited and often produces better information than any paid service.