Since the dawn of civilization, information has been worth its weight in gold. Whether it’s just been instructions for creating early forms of shoes or information about enemy troop movements, information has always made a big difference. In fact, many historians believe that language was created just so early humans could communicate information more easily. One thing that people seem to be a little confused about is the information they can get from a public data search. Could you find a lot of information from this kind of search? Continue reading this article,you’ll find out because that’s today’s topic.
What on Earth is a Public Data Search?
Good articles are usually created in response to good questions. If there’s something that you don’t know that might have a complex answer, you’ll probably be looking for something like an article, a video, or maybe even a scientific paper if your question is complicated enough. Some questions really just need a good, solid explanation in order to make sure that you thoroughly understand the subject.
Nothing is worse than going out to try to answer a questiononly coming back with half-answers. In most cases, that can actually leave you with more questions than you started out with. So, what exactly is a public data search? It’s a pretty simple type of search,it’s just about what it sounds like it is. A public data search is a search through public data, usually through databases.
See, this is exactly why some questions require in-depth answers like this one. We could have simply stopped there because that’s all a public data search is, but then you’d leave this article with a new question. What is public data? Of course, you could figure that out pretty easily through the internet, but that would also make this article a dead end in your search for answers. So, now we have a new question to answer for you. What exactly is public data?
Well, public data is actually a very interesting concept within our government. Many lawyers argue over what shouldshouldn’t be considered public data,sometimes those arguments even turn into lawsuits against the government to get a certain document declassified. Some people really get heated about this topic,for good reason.
You see, public data, records, information, whatever you want to call it actually has a very simple legal definition. Anything that isn’t considered classified by the government in any medium is considered public data. That means video recordings, audio recordings, paper documents, computer files, maps, blueprints, you name it. If a painting was used as part of a court case, that painting could be considered public data.
The laws that were put into place to make such information available for the public were actually originally intended for nothing more than government transparency. A lot of very powerful people decided that it was important for the citizens of the United States to have the ability to see what their government was up to, good or bad. Of course, not everything can be on the public record for any number of reasons. Maybe it could put our troops in danger, or maybe it would cause mass hysteria if something got out. That’s why the government decided to keep its ability to keep certain things declassified.
Just because the government can keep things declassified doesn’t mean that those things can stay declassified. There are a lot of things that are automatically considered public data like criminal records, warrant information, court records, arrest records, real estate records; the list goes on. For things that are classified, there are a few ways to get that information. The first way is to simply be patient. The maximum amount of time something can stay classified is 75 years. After that, it has to be declassified.
If you don’t have 75 years to wait for a specific document to become declassified, you can put in a request with the proper department. It is a request so, unfortunately, that means that it can be denied. If you really want something to be declassified but your request was denied, you can actually sue the government to tryforce them to declassify the document. You would be taking your chances in court, but you could win.
With all of that said, most things that the average everyday person could want to find would be considered public data. Most of the people who go to the lengths that we described are journalists, lawyers,highly concerned citizens. Your public data search wouldn’t be that dramaticwould be a lot easier than that.
The Kind of Information Found with a Public Data Search
Because there are so many things that can be considered public data, it can be a little confusing to tryguess what is entailed in a public data search. Really, exactly what you get depends on what you’re looking forwhere you look.
For instance, if you’re looking to find real estate records, you can probably expect to find things like property value, how much property taxes are, etc. If you’re trying to find someone’s marriage record, you could probably expect to find the names of the people married, where they were married,the date of the marriage. “Probably” is because it can vary a lot depending on the state that you’re looking in.
Both of those are considered public data searches,for both, you would just be accessing public data, but that’s far from the most common form of a public data search. Most people who do these types of searches are looking for people’s criminal records, arrest records, court records, warrants,other things of that nature. That kind of public data search can be a little trickier than the other types, but because it’s all public data, you can definitely still find it.
For this kind of public data search, you can actually find a lot of information. For instance, an arrest record usually contains the name of the person that was arrested, the date,why they were arrested. It can also tell you if they were convicted or not, but sometimes that’s on the court record. Court records contain a lot of the same information as arrest records, but instead of the data relating to an arrest, it relates to someone’s court case,
Court records are created any time someone goes to court for any matter. If someone is being tried for grand theft auto, that would go on their court record. If they were in court being sued for back rent, that would appear in the same place. It doesn’t matter if you’re in court for a criminal or civil matter; it will still appear on the court record.
How to do a Public Data Search
Finding the information you’re looking for can be easy, or it can be incredibly difficult. It depends on what you’re looking forhow exactly you’re going about trying to find it. If you want real estate or property records, all you really need to do is go to the county website for whatever county the property is,you should be able to pull up those records with ease. This is one of the most straightforward types of public data searches.
There are some other types of public data that you need to send in a requesta processing fee to obtain. This is only a little more difficult because it can take a little bit of timeit costs a little bit of money, but you can still usually get exactly what you’re looking for.
Something that is a little tricky to get your hands on are things like arrest recordscriminal records. That’s because of where most people would first consider looking, which is the sheriff’s department website or another law enforcement agency website. The databases provided by these entities are usually lacking, so you might not find all of the information you’re looking for.
Fortunately, there’s an easy fix to this. If you need that kind of information, just use an online personal background check service. These services access thousands of public data databases all over the country at the same timeallow you instant access to all of the information you need.
Getting the Most Out of Your Public Data Search
Getting the data you need can feel like a fever dream at times, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. The internet has made this process a lot easier than it has been in the past because all of this information is connected through its intricate hardwaresoftware. Whether you’re looking into your own information or someone else’s, the information is out there if you just know how to find it.
***SpyFly provides consumers affordable, immediate access to public record information. Federal laws prohibit businesses from using SpyFly’s service to make decisions about employment, insurance, consumer credit, tenant screening, or for any other purpose subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq.**
