Is Spokeo a real company?
Yes, and its paperwork is a public file rather than a claim.
Spokeo, Inc. appears on California's data broker registry, which the California Privacy Protection Agency publishes as a downloadable spreadsheet. The copy published on 29 July 2026 and downloaded on 2 August 2026 carries 603 registrants and lists Spokeo at 199 S. Los Robles Ave, Pasadena.
That same filing names six websites under the one company: Spokeo.com, FreePeopleDirectory.com, ThatsThem.com, PeopleWin.com, AnyWho.com and Family.me. It is worth knowing before a second site appears to independently confirm what the first one told you.
So the question behind is Spokeo legit is rarely whether the company exists. It does, it files annual disclosures with a state regulator, and those disclosures are the source for most of the numbers below. The harder questions are what a report contains and what the law lets you do with it.
What a Spokeo report contains
United States public records about a person, assembled into one page.
The most neutral description available is a court's. Reviewing the case set out further down, the Ninth Circuit wrote in 2017 that Spokeo "compiles consumer data and builds individual consumer-information profiles", and that a free report covers "a person's age, contact information, marital status, occupation, hobbies, economic health, and wealth", with more detail behind a subscription.
Spokeo's registry filing adds the categories it says it does not touch: no data on minors, no biometrics, no precise geolocation, no immigration status. It answers yes to collecting government-issued identification numbers used to verify identity, and yes to having sold or shared consumer data with law enforcement, the federal government and other state governments.
The filing also states that Spokeo is not regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and that a separate product called Spokeo for Business — Right Party Contact sells credit header data under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to qualified businesses and government agencies.
What did the FTC charge Spokeo with?
Marketing consumer profiles to employers and recruiters without meeting the Fair Credit Reporting Act's requirements.
On 12 June 2012 the FTC announced that Spokeo would pay $800,000 to settle charges it had operated as a consumer reporting agency in violation of the FCRA. The Commission alleged three failures: not verifying that buyers had a permissible purpose, not ensuring accuracy, and not telling buyers of their own obligations.
A second count concerned endorsements. The FTC alleged Spokeo posted reviews of its own service on news and technology sites while presenting them as independent, and charged that as a violation of the FTC Act.
A settlement is not a finding. The FTC's own notice states that the stipulated order "is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation". It was filed by the Department of Justice in the Central District of California and bars future FCRA violations.
The drawers are real and the records inside them are real. What is on the label is not the same as what you are allowed to do with what is in the drawer.
What was the Spokeo Supreme Court case about?
Whether a man could sue over an inaccurate profile at all. Not whether the profile was inaccurate.
Thomas Robins alleged Spokeo had published a report that falsely stated his age, marital status, wealth, education level and profession, and that included a photograph of a different person. In 2016 the Supreme Court vacated the ruling below, holding that standing requires an injury that is real rather than abstract or merely procedural.
On remand the Ninth Circuit held in 2017 that the alleged errors — married with children, in his fifties, in a professional field, holding a graduate degree, wealthier than he was — were concrete enough to sue over, since he was out of work and job-hunting at the time.
Allegations, not findings. Both rulings decided only whether Robins was entitled to be in court, taking his account as true for that purpose. Neither decided whether the report about him was in fact wrong.
What does Spokeo cost?
No figure from Spokeo appears in this post, and the reason is worth stating plainly.
Every request made to spokeo.com on 2 August 2026 returned HTTP 403 Forbidden — from a command-line client and from a scripted browser alike, on the pricing, terms and opt-out paths. That is a block on automated traffic rather than a statement about what a person on a home connection sees, and it leaves us with no dated price to quote.
Our ranking of the category recorded the same wall from the other side on 31 July 2026: no vendor in it published a price on a public page, and the figure appears at checkout after the search.
DetectiveCheck publishes $15 a month before you type anything. A price you cannot read until after you have searched is a price set once the seller already knows you want the answer.
Spokeo against the alternatives
Pick by the question you walked in with, because these are three different products wearing one search box.
| What you want | What answers it | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Address history, relatives, US court and property records | A public-records people search such as Spokeo | Records outside the United States are thin, and we could read no price on 2 August 2026 |
| Which accounts exist for an email, handle, name or number | DetectiveCheck | No addresses, relatives or court records; phone reaches 8 sources against 71 for email, and there is no API |
| A ranked view of the whole public-records category | Our people search ranking | Five of the six vendors in it publish no readable price either |
| Investigator-grade depth on a single identifier | Epieos and its alternatives | Priced per report, and none of them holds public records |
Most people who arrive at is Spokeo legit are on the first row and do not know the other three exist.
Can a Spokeo report screen a tenant or a job applicant?
No. That boundary is exactly what the 2012 order was about.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act governs reports used to decide employment, housing, credit, insurance and tenancy. Doing that lawfully needs a consumer reporting agency with permissible-purpose checks, accuracy procedures and a dispute process. Spokeo's own registry filing answers "No" to being regulated by the FCRA.
The identical limit applies to us, and it sits in section 4 of our terms rather than in a footnote. A DetectiveCheck report is not a consumer report and may not decide anybody's employment, housing, credit, insurance or tenancy.
This is the most useful thing to establish before paying for anything in this category. If the reason you are searching is a hiring decision or a rental application, none of these products is the correct one, whatever the marketing implies.
How do you remove yourself from Spokeo?
Through Spokeo's own opt-out tool, and then a second time for one of its sites.
Its registry filing states that consumers may opt out at spokeo.com/optout, and that — in Spokeo's own words — an opt-out completed there "will opt a consumer out from all public Spokeo websites except Thatsthem.com". ThatsThem carries a separate opt-out at thatsthem.com/optout. The filing also offers a contact page and a toll-free number.
The same document reports the volume: 3,795,579 requests to opt out of sale or sharing received, 3,785,787 complied with in whole and 9,792 denied, against 8 requests to delete, all of which it recorded as complied with in part.
California adds a second route. Under the Delete Act, the agency says that beginning 1 August 2026 data brokers must check its deletion mechanism at least every 45 days, which puts one request in front of every registrant at once.
The verdict, and what it does not cover
Legitimate in the sense that matters legally, and limited in the ways that matter practically.
Spokeo is a California corporation on a state regulator's public register, filing annual disclosures anybody can download as a spreadsheet. It settled an FTC case in 2012 for $800,000 without admitting liability, and it has been the named party in a Supreme Court decision on standing. None of that is the profile of a fake.
What it is not is a background check you may act on, a guarantee of accuracy, or a product whose price you can read in advance. The first is federal law, the second is what the Robins pleadings were about, and the third is what we could not resolve on 2 August 2026.
Judge it against the question you arrived with. For United States address history and relatives it is one of the best-established products there is; for which accounts exist behind an address or a handle it is the wrong tool, and no subscription changes that.
Common questions
Is Spokeo legit?
It is a real company rather than a front. Spokeo, Inc. files as a data broker on California's public registry from an address in Pasadena, and it has been operating for well over a decade. The documented marks against it are a 2012 FTC settlement of $800,000 and a Supreme Court standing case, both of which are public and both of which are dated.
Is Spokeo a scam?
Nothing in the public record supports that description. It is a registered California data broker that files annual disclosures with a state privacy regulator. The recorded complaints are about how it marketed and how accurate its profiles were, not about taking money for nothing. Its 2012 FTC settlement was resolved without any admission of liability.
How much does Spokeo cost?
This post quotes no figure. Every request made to spokeo.com on 2 August 2026 returned HTTP 403 Forbidden, including the pricing page, so there was no dated source to cite. Checking the wider category on 31 July 2026 found no vendor publishing a price on a public page; the figure appears at checkout, after the search.
Is Spokeo accurate?
There is no neutral measurement of that, and the well-known case is an allegation rather than a finding. Thomas Robins alleged the site misstated his age, marital status, wealth, education and profession. Both courts that heard it ruled only on whether he could sue, not on whether the report was wrong. Verify anything before acting on it.
Can I use a Spokeo report to screen a tenant or an employee?
No. The Fair Credit Reporting Act governs reports used to decide employment, housing, credit, insurance or tenancy, and that requires a consumer reporting agency with permissible-purpose checks and a dispute process. Spokeo's own California registry filing answers that it is not regulated by the FCRA. The same restriction applies to DetectiveCheck.
How do I remove myself from Spokeo?
Spokeo's registry filing directs consumers to its self-help opt-out tool at spokeo.com/optout, and offers a contact page and a toll-free number as alternatives. Removal is per publisher rather than per industry, so it needs repeating elsewhere, and fresh public filings can reintroduce records that were removed once.
Does opting out of Spokeo also remove you from ThatsThem?
No, and Spokeo says so itself. Its California registration states that an opt-out completed on its own page covers all public Spokeo websites except Thatsthem.com, which has to be handled separately at thatsthem.com/optout. That is the sort of detail that turns one opt-out into a job half done without anybody noticing.
Why does Spokeo run under six website names?
Its registration lists Spokeo.com, FreePeopleDirectory.com, ThatsThem.com, PeopleWin.com, AnyWho.com and Family.me as doing-business-as names for the one company. Multiple brands over one data set is normal in this category. It matters mainly because a second site appearing to confirm the first is not independent confirmation of anything.
Is it legal to look somebody up on Spokeo?
Searching public records is lawful in the United States. The restrictions land on use rather than on searching: employment, housing, credit, insurance and tenancy decisions fall under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In the UK and the EU, public personal data remains personal data and processing it still needs a lawful basis under the GDPR.
What is the best alternative to Spokeo?
It depends which question you have. For United States address history and relatives, the alternatives are the other public-records services in the same category. For which accounts exist behind an email address, a handle, a name or a number, that is a different mechanism entirely, and DetectiveCheck publishes its price and its source counts up front.
