TruthFinder is a consumer people-search site operated by TruthFinder, LLC (with its Scam Defense product operated by an affiliated entity, PubRec LLC), part of a family of background-report brands under common ownership including Instant Checkmate. Its privacy policy discloses collection of identifiers, traffic/device data, third-party-sourced public and private records, financial/purchase data, and inferred interest profiles, and states that categories including identifiers, commercial information and browsing activity are shared with advertising partners and data analytics providers, some of it sold or shared under CCPA. In September 2023 the FTC announced that TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate would pay a $5.8 million civil penalty and be permanently restrained from FCRA violations after the agency alleged the companies deceived consumers about background-report accuracy and operated as unregistered consumer reporting agencies while marketing reports for employment and tenant screening; the stipulated order named TruthFinder, LLC, Instant Checkmate, LLC, The Control Group Media Company, LLC, Intelicare Direct, LLC and PubRec, LLC as defendants.
TRACK RECORD
1 BREACH · 1 ENFORCEMENT ACTION
BREACH LEDGER
[2019-04-12] · BREACH
Have I Been Pwned lists a breach record for TruthFinder: "Truth Finder".
Approximately 8,159,573 accounts affected, per HIBP.
The FTC announced on September 11, 2023 that background-report providers TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate would pay a $5.8 million penalty to settle charges that they deceived consumers about background-report accuracy and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by operating as unregistered consumer reporting agencies while marketing reports for employment and tenant screening.
TruthFinder's privacy policy states that in addition to data users provide directly, it collects 'Third Party Data' obtained from social media, financial institutions, public sources, and private sources and data providers, which may include financial transaction and account information and personal identifying information; the same policy states TruthFinder further derives inferred profiles about users, for example inferring interest in products or brands from browsing or purchase activity.
TruthFinder's privacy policy names TruthFinder, LLC as the operating entity of the core TruthFinder.com site, while a separate section discloses that the TruthFinder + Scam Defense and OmniWatch products are operated by an affiliated entity, PubRec LLC.
The FTC's stipulated order in FTC v. TruthFinder, LLC names five affiliated corporate defendants operating as one enterprise subject to the order: Instant Checkmate, LLC; TruthFinder, LLC; The Control Group Media Company, LLC; Intelicare Direct, LLC; and PubRec, LLC.
TruthFinder's CCPA disclosure table states that Identifiers (real name, postal address, online identifier, IP address, phone number, email address, account name) are sold and/or shared with referral affiliates, advertising partners and data analytics providers; the general policy separately states Personal Information is shared with 'advertisers and other third parties' for the purpose of serving targeted advertising on unaffiliated third-party sites.
Have I Been Pwned's breach catalog lists the "Truth Finder" incident (truthfinder.com), breach date 2019-04-12, affecting approximately 8,159,573 accounts. Data classes exposed per HIBP: Email addresses, Names, Passwords, Phone numbers. Source: Have I Been Pwned (haveibeenpwned.com), CC BY 4.0.
The FTC announced on September 11, 2023 that background-report providers TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate would pay a $5.8 million penalty to settle charges that they deceived consumers about background-report accuracy and violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by operating as unregistered consumer reporting agencies while marketing reports for employment and tenant screening.
TruthFinder's privacy policy discloses that it collects information through cookies, pixels, web beacons and other tracking technologies about users' web browsing activities, including IP address, geographic location, and device/display settings, and that this data may be linked with third-party ad-tech partners to serve targeted advertising on other, unaffiliated websites.