CPPA Forces People-Search Company to Close or Face Fine
California-based Background Alert must shut down through 2028, or face a $50,000 fine for failing to register as a data broker and pay an annual fee, according to terms of a settlement with the California Privacy Protection Agency. CPPA, which announced the agreement Thursday, raised privacy concerns with the people-search company’s business model in its Wednesday order approving the settlement.
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Within 15 days Background Alert must cease operations for three years or face a fine, under the settlement approved by the CPPA board Wednesday. The broker failed to register between Feb. 1 and Oct. 8, 2024, the agency said. Businesses that operated as data brokers in 2024 had until Jan. 31, 2025, to register with the CPPA or face $200 daily fines. The company didn’t comment.
Background Alert created and sold profiles about people on its website and drew inferences from billions of public records to identify people who “may somehow be associated with” a searched-for individual and created profiles about consumers, alleged the CPPA Enforcement Bureau. CPPA noted that Background Alert promoted its business with a customer testimonial saying, “It's scary how much information you can dig up on someone.”
“Californians enjoy important protections over their personal information, including inferences that businesses use to profile them,” said Michael Macko, CPPA enforcement head. “Today's action shows that we won't hesitate to pursue violations based on inferences and profiling.”
Background Alert customers could, for a fee, search public records including on birth, death, arrests, marriage and professional licenses, said the CPPA order approving the settlement. The report received by the customer would also include information about roommates, family members and other associates. “The company does not merely provide public records,” the order said. “Rather, Inferences are a significant part of Background Alert’s business model … Background Alert searches for ‘patterns’ in public records, including any ‘alarming patterns.’”
“Inferences present special risks to privacy,” the order said. “Seemingly innocuous data points, when combined with other data points, can be exploited to infer highly personal characteristics about people. Consumers can be identified, re-identified, and profiled as a result.”
“Bad actors can use Inferences to target a variety of sensitive groups for improper purposes,” the CPPA order continued. “For example, bad actors can use Inferences to identify gun owners, immigrants, members of faith communities, veterans, and patients at reproductive healthcare facilities.”
It's the state privacy agency’s seventh action stemming from an investigative sweep of California Delete Act compliance that it announced Oct. 30. The agency last week said it was seeking a $46,000 fine from Florida-based National Public Data (see 2502200041). On Jan. 29, CPPA announced a $55,800 settlement with Connecticut-based Key Marketing Advantage (see 2501290050).