Spokeo

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People search website

title: "Spokeo" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["companies-based-in-pasadena,-california", "internet-properties-established-in-2006", "internet-search-engines", "online-person-databases", "data-collection"] description: "People search website" topic_path: "technology/databases" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokeo" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary People search website ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox website"]

Field	Value
logo	Spokeo logo (2023).svg
logo_size	185px
name	Spokeo
company_type	Private
founder	Mike Daly, Harrison Tang, Ray Chen, and Eric Liang
key_people	Harrison Tang (CEO)
foundation	Mountain View, California, USA (2006)
location	Pasadena, California, USA
industry	Software
products	Spokeo
users	276 million (2024)
url	spokeo.com
website_type	People search engine
language	English
launch_date	November 5, 2006
::

Spokeo is a people search website that aggregates data from online and offline sources.

History

Spokeo was founded in 2006 as a social media aggregator by four graduates from Stanford University: Mike Daly, Harrison Tang, Ray Chen, and Eric Liang. The four created the site in Tang's parents' basement. On November 5, 2006, the site officially launched, after attracting an initial round of angel investment in the "low hundreds of thousands" according to co-founder Ray Chen.

With the growing dominance of Facebook, there was little demand for social media aggregators, so Spokeo adjusted its offerings to provide people's contact information as well. The site nearly failed during the 2008 financial crisis, forcing Tang and the other founders to get loans from their parents. Spokeo later evolved to become an information-gathering website that offers various options for finding information about people, including income, religion, spouse's name, credit status, the number of people in the household, a satellite shot of the house and its estimated value. The company's revenues for 2014 were $57 million, and as of 2015, the site had 18 million users.

In 2010, a class action lawsuit was filed against Spokeo seeking injunctive relief and monetary damages for an alleged violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). A dispute over the plaintiff's standing advanced to the Supreme Court of the United States in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, which remanded the case to the appeals court. The case was settled through mediation in March 2019.

In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined Spokeo $800,000 for marketing information to human resource departments for employment screening without adhering to consumer protection provided by the FCRA — the first FTC fine involving personal data collected online and sold to potential employers. The company is also required to submit compliance reports to the FTC for twenty years.

Technology

Spokeo utilizes deep web crawlers to aggregate data. Searches can be made for a name, email, phone number, username or address. The site allows users to remove information about themselves through an opt-out process that requires the URL of the listing and a valid email address. The firm aggregates information from public records and does not do original research into personal data. It aggregates marketing data approximations into the data it finds from social media and online registry sites. The company gives users access to 12 billion public records.

Spokeo also runs Search Angels, which uses "volunteers who use Spokeo to help those touched by adoption, foster care and other family separations to find long-lost family members while also offering emotional support."

In 2024, Spokeo announced a Right-Party Contact Tool as part of its "Spokeo for Business" offering.

Privacy

Larry Ponemon has raised concerns about the general practice of gathering personal data and the potential for identity theft. In 2019, Spokeo's CEO announced plans to make Spokeo's data collection more transparent and offer "the easiest opt-out policy among the competitors", but USA Today noted it was still "hidden at the bottom of a privacy page".

References

(September 13, 2013). "Spokeo Optimizes People Search For Your Smartphone". SoCalTech.
"People Search".
Ward, Marguerite. (July 29, 2016). "How one immigrant started a $78 million company from his parents' basement".
Matt Marshall. (November 29, 2006). "Spokeo — integrates MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and more". VentureBeat.
Brandon, John. (January 19, 2011). "Spokeo A Growing Threat To Internet Privacy, Cyber Security Experts Warn".
"Spokeo on the Forbes America's Most Promising Companies List".
(May 28, 2015). "Q&A with Spokeo founder Harrison Tang on funding a startup, challenges and secrets of success".
Hachman, Mark. (July 20, 2010). "Spokeo Suit Claims Site Offers Inaccurate Info". PC Magazine.
(17 May 2016). "Supreme Court Returns False-Data Case to Appeals Panel". The New York Times.
William Baude. (2016). "Standing in the Shadow of Congress". Supreme Court Review.
Kelly, H. Scott. (2019-03-15). "Spokeo Update: Parties Settle Long-Running FCRA Dispute".
"FTC Issues First Internet Data Fine".
(2012-06-16). "Spokeo Agrees to $800,000 FTC Settlement". Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C..
(13 June 2012). "Spokeo Is Penalized by F.T.C. in Sale of Personal Data". The New York Times.
(12 June 2012). "Spokeo to Pay $800,000 to Settle FTC Charges Company Allegedly Marketed Information to Employers and Recruiters in Violation of FCRA". Federal Trade Commission.
JR Raphael. (March 10, 2009). "People Search Engines: They Know Your Dark Secrets…And Tell Anyone".
"Removing Your Listing from Spokeo".
Amar Toor. (January 20, 2011). "Spokeo Publishes All of Your Personal Information in One Place. Here's How to (Temporarily) Protect Your Privacy". Switched.com.
Grant Gross. (July 2, 2010). "Spokeo: CDT's Privacy Complaint 'unwarranted'".
Smith, Kevin. (October 23, 2015). "Spokeo unveils service to help curb fraud".
Smith, Kevin. (January 8, 2015). "Pasadena-based Spokeo emerges as a top people search engine".
Hogan, Brigid. (October 31, 2024). "Inside Spokeo’s Journey to Launching the Right Party Contact Tool".
Graham, Jefferson. (2019-12-10). "Spokeo says it has information about you. Here's how to opt out".

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