Using DetectiveCheck to stalk, harass, intimidate or track a person, or to make a decision governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, is prohibited. Accounts that do it are closed without refund and, where a person is at risk, reported.
Why this policy exists
A lookup tool is useful because it collapses work that would otherwise take an evening of searching. That same property makes it useful to someone with bad intent. This policy is where we draw the line, and we enforce it.
What the service is for
- Identifying a number, address or account that contacted you
- Verifying someone before you pay them, meet them, or let them into your home
- Checking whether a profile, listing or message is a scam or an impersonation
- Looking yourself up, to see and reduce your own public exposure
- Checking whether a password of yours is already circulating in a breach
What it is not for
Never, under any circumstances
- Stalking or surveillance. Monitoring a person's location, movements, relationships or accounts without their knowledge.
- Harassment or intimidation. Using anything found here to contact, threaten, shame or pressure someone.
- Doxxing. Publishing or distributing someone's personal information.
- Targeting a person you are barred from contacting by a restraining order, protective order or bail condition.
- Targeting a person who has left you, including a former partner, and including where you believe your reasons are good.
Prohibited because the law forbids it
- Any use covered by the FCRA: employment, tenancy, credit, insurance, or licensing decisions. See Terms, Section 4.
- Discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability, familial status, age, or any other protected characteristic.
- Any use that violates a law applying to you.
Prohibited because it breaks the service
- Reselling, republishing or syndicating results, or building a competing database from them
- Scraping, automated bulk querying, or access outside the interfaces we provide
- Sharing account credentials, or evading rate limits and credit caps
How we enforce this
Every lookup is logged against the account that ran it. We review patterns that suggest abuse: repeated queries against one person, bursts of unrelated identifiers, queries following a report of harassment. Where we find abuse we suspend the account immediately and terminate it without refund.
Where we believe someone is in danger we will cooperate with law enforcement and preserve the relevant records.
Reporting misuse
If you believe someone is using DetectiveCheck against you, write to [email protected]. Include anything you can: the address or number involved, dates, screenshots. We investigate every report and reply.
If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number first. In Brazil, call 190 for the police or 180 for the Central de Atendimento à Mulher, both free and 24 hours. In the US you can also reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788.
Removing your own information
If you do not want your information returned in future lookups, you can have it suppressed, free, without an account. Go to Your privacy choices. We process suppression requests for anyone who asks, wherever they live.
Contact
Abuse reports: [email protected]
Everything else: [email protected]