In July 2026, Spokeo, a prominent online people-search website, agreed to a $10 million preliminary settlement to resolve a massive, multi-state class action lawsuit. The settlement puts an end to over five years of complex litigation centered around the unauthorized commercial use of everyday people's personal information. For individuals who are increasingly concerned about how their names, addresses, and backgrounds are leveraged for corporate profit, this resolution marks a major legal victory and a step toward establishing stronger digital boundaries.

The Lawsuit: The Controversy Over "Teaser Profiles"

Unlike most cases involving individuals' personal data, the core of the dispute in this case did not involve a malicious cyberattack, a database leak, or a traditional data breach exposing sensitive financial records to hackers. Instead, the plaintiffs took direct aim at Spokeo’s aggressive marketing practices and business model. As a massive data aggregator, Spokeo collects, compiles, and cross-references vast amounts of publicly available information—including names, current and past addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses—into easily searchable public profiles.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged that Spokeo utilized their personal information to generate what they called "teaser profiles". According to court filings, Spokeo actively displayed these teaser profiles, which prominently featured real names and home addresses, to casual site visitors as a targeted marketing tactic. The ultimate goal was to entice these visitors into purchasing paid premium subscriptions to the Spokeo database. The plaintiffs fundamentally argued that by weaponizing their personal identities and data to promote a commercial service without their knowledge or consent, Spokeo had crossed a critical legal and ethical line, causing harm stemming from a distinct loss of control over their personal information.

Right of Publicity: A Unique Legal Approach

Rather than relying on standard consumer protection or data breach statutes, the plaintiffs leveraged a unique and highly effective legal framework: state right of publicity laws. These specific statutes generally prohibit corporations and individuals from utilizing an individual's name, likeness, or identity for advertising or commercial gain without obtaining prior authorization.

The original lawsuit was filed in November 2021 by three plaintiffs asserting claims under California, Ohio, and Indiana law. Spokeo aggressively fought the claims, initially moving to dismiss the case by arguing that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing. However, the court denied the motion to dismiss in April 2022, paving the way for extensive written discovery, document production, depositions, and expert analysis. In 2024, Judge William H. Orrick certified a class of Californians and a class of Ohioans—totaling roughly 275,000 individuals—allowing the case to move forward. Ultimately, the proposed settlement grew to encompass, and resolve right of publicity claims across, nine states: Alabama, California, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota, and Washington.

Breaking Down the $10 Million Settlement

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, Spokeo will be required to establish nine state-specific settlement funds that cumulatively amount to $10 million. Crucially, the settlement designates these funds as entirely non-reversionary, which means that any unclaimed money left over after the initial claims period will not simply be returned to Spokeo's pockets. Instead, any remaining funds will be systematically redistributed to claiming class members where practicable, or otherwise handled according to the specific directives of the court.

How much will individual class members actually receive? The exact payouts will inherently depend on the total number of valid claims filed in each respective state, as well as necessary deductions for attorneys' fees, administrative costs, and court-approved incentive awards. However, assuming an estimated 10% claims rate, legal filings suggest that individual recoveries could range anywhere from tens of dollars to well over $1,000, depending heavily on the state jurisdiction.

Beyond the financial compensation, the settlement also demands meaningful injunctive relief designed to fundamentally alter Spokeo's business practices. Moving forward, Spokeo has formally agreed to modify its search algorithms and user interfaces. When a user conducts a name search, Spokeo must now alter its purchase and payment pages so that the full names and home addresses of individuals in the affected injunction classes will no longer be visible during that critical portion of the transaction.

The Broader Implications for the Information Economy

This landmark $10 million settlement sends a powerful, industry-wide message to data brokers, aggregators, and tech companies alike. The core takeaway is clear: simply aggregating publicly available data does not give a corporation carte blanche to use everyday people's identities as free advertising material. As noted by Morgan & Morgan attorneys representing the plaintiffs following the resolution, "Companies navigating today's information economy routinely put their profits ahead of individuals' rights, and this case is no different. We are pleased that this resolution holds Spokeo accountable for its alleged invasions of people's rights to their information".

For average consumers, this multi-million dollar settlement underscores the critical importance of staying informed and vigilant about thwir digital rights. As the complex legal landscape surrounding data privacy and the right of publicity continues to rapidly evolve, holding powerful data aggregators to strict legal standards will remain absolutely essential in preventing the unauthorized monetization of people's personal lives and identifying information.

The post Spokeo’s $10 Million Settlement: A Major Win for Data Privacy and the Right of Publicity appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

The Maryland Motherlode is a free resource that is available to anyone who has an internet connection. The records can be accessed on the Reclaim The Records website. The site's search function allows users to easily navigate the vast collection, filtering records by name, date, location, and other criteria.

The Maryland Motherlode includes:

• Birth records (statewide 1898-1922; with some others earlier and later): These records include the name of the child, the date and place of birth, the names of the parents, and other information.
• Marriage records (statewide 1951-2013 and some earlier): These records include the names of the bride and groom, the date and place of the wedding, and the names of the witnesses.
• Death records (statewide 1898-2012; with some additional through 2014): These records include the name of the deceased, the date and place of death, the cause of death, and other information.
• Naturalization records: These records include the name of the person being naturalized, the date of naturalization, and the country of origin.

The birth records provide vital clues about family lineage, including the names of parents, birth dates, and places of birth. Marriage records offer insights into family connections and relationships, revealing the names of spouses, wedding dates, and wedding locations. Death records too, hold valuable genealogical information, detailing the names of the deceased, their dates of passing, and causes of death.

Attorneys can use the information in these records to potentially help locate missing witnesses, heirs, or clients; to quiet title; or to answer other investigative questions.

The post Organization Publishes Massive Database of Maryland Public Records appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

CLEwebinars.com is hosting "The Ethics of Social Media Research" webinar on June 28th at 1:00-2:30 pm ET, presented by Carole Levitt, Esq. & Mark Rosch. (This webinar qualifies for 1.5 hours of Ethics credits.)

In this webinar, you will learn how to avoid potential ethical traps when you research social media profiles to uncover investigative/background information about parties, witnesses, experts, jurors, etc., and, in some cases, to use this information as evidence. This program reviews pertinent Ethics opinions issued by the ABA and bar associations in many jurisdictions; discusses relevant caselaw; reviews detailed Guidelines for social media research issued by the New York State Bar’s Commercial and Federal Litigation Section; and ties them into the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

The program will also explore:

• Who's your friend?
• Could "friending" violate the deception or ex parte communication ethical rules?    
• Whether it is ethical to research the social media profiles of parties and witnesses during discovery or trial?
• Is it ethical to research the social media profiles of potential jurors before trial or seated jurors during trial?
• Could advising clients to delete, deactivate, or adjust privacy settings on their social networking accounts lead to an ethical violation or spoliation charge against you?
• How to configure security/privacy settings in your own profile to avoid ethical breaches.

The seminar is partially based on the speakers' fifty-five page Social Media chapter from their book, "The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet."

The post CLE Webinar Covers Ethics of Social Media Research appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Join us for a new, free webinar, "How Data Can Help You Win: Finding Background and Investigative Information to Support Your Cases and Transactions" on Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 2:00 pm EDT at (https://linkon.in/3hmPMXe). (This program is not available for CLE credit.)

Vice-President of CLEwebinars.com Carole Levitt, a leading educator, attorney, law librarian, and ABA author on Internet investigative and legal research, demonstrates how investigative research databases help attorneys quickly and cost-effectively uncover comprehensive background information they need for their cases and transactions.

Carole will be joined by Aleck Ragsdale, a professional training specialist with TransUnion for 5+ years, who has a strong focus and expertise in Law Enforcement and legal investigation training. He has assisted and presented to customers nationwide in their use and understanding of TransUnion data to solve complex business challenges.

After you sign up for this webinar, you'll receive a discount code for 25% off the price of Levitt's new ABA Law Practice Division book, "Internet Legal Research on a Budget: Free and Low-Cost Resources for Lawyers." The discount code will be active through August 31, 2020.

The post Free Investigative Research Webinar | June 17, 2020 appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Updated November 14, 2016

One of our favorite unofficial, free sources for dates of birth, Birthdatabase.com, is currently once again unavailable is back online. After an absence of approximately three months, the site's search form is once again became active in November 2016 and retrieving birth date results.

The URL now points to a "parked domain" type page with no original content or information.

The post Is Birthdatabase.com Gone Forever? | Update – Back…And Now Gone Again appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

The FBI’s UCR Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of more than 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. Since 1930, the FBI has administered the UCR Program and has continued to assess and monitor the nature and type of crime in the nation. The program’s primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management; over the years, however, the data have become one of the country’s leading social indicators. Criminologists, sociologists, legislators, municipal planners, the media, and other students of criminal justice use the data for varied research and planning purposes.

In 2013, law enforcement agencies active in the UCR Program represented more than 309 million United States inhabitants (98.0 percent of the total population). The coverage amounted to 98.8 percent of the population in Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 92.9 percent of the population in cities outside metropolitan areas, and 93.5 percent of the population in nonmetropolitan counties.

The data are notoriously dense. National Public Radio (NPR) notes that, "The FBI collects clearance statistics for its annual 'Uniform Crime Report,' but it doesn't break those numbers down by jurisdiction. That makes it hard for people to compare local police departments' clearance rates, or track them over time." To make the data more accessible, NPR has created a tool to locate information about the clearance rates for crimes in a particular geographic area.

The FBI UCR data can be searched by location name (e.g., Boston, MA) or agency (e.g., Colorado State Patrol).

Currently the tool includes only available data through 2013. NPR plans to add 2014 data when they are available.

NPR offers a number of caveats for users to keep in mind when using their crime reporting search tool.

• The quality of American crime statistics is notoriously uneven, and these are no exception. Sometimes cities fail to report, or their data are rejected because of errors. For instance, this database shows the New York Police Department clearing zero homicides in 2011 and 2012 — which was clearly not the case.
• These data follow the standards of the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. One of the idiosyncrasies of UCR Summary data is that clearances are credited to the year in which the crime was cleared, not the year in which it was committed. As a result, it's sometimes possible for a city to clear more murders than were committed in a year, for a clearance rate above 100 percent.
• Some cities will claim different clearance rates, based on another federal statistical standard known as the NIBRS. We decided to stick with the more widely-used UCR Summary standard, to allow people to compare like with like. (Here is an explanation of the differences between UCR and NIBRS.)
• We've left out clearance statistics for sexual assault, because experts in the field have advised us that reporting inconsistencies make those data too unreliable.

The post How Many Crimes Do Your Police ‘Clear’? | New Tool Allows You to Find Out appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

The popular Internet research manual “The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet” is now available as an e-book in the .epub and .mobi formats.

The retail price of the ebook is $49.95 at the publisher’s Web site -   http://linkon.in/1fAX8mU. Discounts are available to attendees of the authors live MCLE seminars (and other owners of print copies of the latest edition of "The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet") via a discount code found in the print book's 12th edition.

“The Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet” features extensive reviews of the best investigative, background, and legal research resources available for free on the Internet. Unlike others guides which present sites as little more than a list of links, this book offers tips on how to effectively use those sites and includes hundreds of screen-shots to illustrate the step-by-step usage of many of the sites discussed. The book also examines many lesser-known, and sometimes overlooked, search features of popular search engines like Google.

Now, as an ebook, readers with an Internet connection can click any URL in the book and get directly to the site discussed.

"Anyone can benefit from using The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet, regardless of their previous Internet usage. The ebook is a useful tool for any legal professional, legal educator, law student, business person, or consumer handling their own legal or investigative matter," said Carole Levitt, the book's co-author. "For the beginning searcher, it covers many overlooked features of Web browsers, the 'mechanics' of navigating the Internet, and basic research strategies and tools. For 'power searchers,' it covers more advanced search strategies and reveals tips and tricks for getting the most out of many of the sites."

"Whether you're a business person or a legal professional, keeping pace with rapidly changing resources on the Internet can give you a leg up on your competition," continued co-author Mark Rosch. "The full-text search capability of e-books gives readers the ability to find just about any resource they need by name or topic anywhere in the book."

Print versions of the book are also still available from the publisher at http://bit.ly/9uihD4.

Levitt and Rosch are nationally recognized authors and speakers about the Internet. In 1999, they formed Internet For Lawyers (IFL) and have been training professionals in cooperation with corporations, law firms, legal associations, adult education schools, library schools, and library associations nationwide ever since. In addition to this book, they are also co-authors of five other books published by the American Bar Association's (ABA) Law Practice Division – “Google Gmail and Calendar in One Hour for Lawyers,” (2013); “Google For Lawyers,” (2010); Find Info Like a Pro, Volume 1,” (2010); Find Info Like a Pro, Volume 2,” (2011); and “The “Lawyer’s Guide to Fact Finding on the Internet,” (2 editions – 2003, 2006).

Levitt and Rosch are available to corporations, law firms, and associations for live, in-person seminars to teach the topics covered in their books. For more information about the authors' schedules and presentation topics, visit https://www.netforlawyers.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Qualified outlets should contact press@netforlawyers.com to request a review copy of the ebook.

The post e-Book Puts Internet Investigative, Background, Legal Research at Your Fingertips | Popular Research Book “The Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet” Now Available For iPad, Kindle, Nook and Other Popular E-Readers appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

ProPublica, the "independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest," has created a searchable database of payments made by pharmaceutical companies to doctors - usually as compensation for presentations the doctors make that discuss the companies' drugs. While this information is not part of the public record, some pharmaceutical companies have begun posting this information on their own Web sites. ProPublica has gathered this information from these various sources to create its searchable database. The database is searchable by doctor's name. It can also be filtered by state.

Knowing whether the opposition's expert witness (or one you're considering) has received payments from a particular drug manufacturer could be invaluable.

Beginning in 2013, Federal law requires pharmaceutical companies to report this payment information. It will then be listed on a government sponsored Web site. Until then, ProPublica will update its database periodically.

The post ProPublica Provides Database of Payments to Physicians by Pharmaceutical Companies appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Back in May, we wrote about Google's cancellation of its News Archive project. At the time, the Boson Phoenix, one of the newspaper partners providing content to the News Archive, reported that the Archive was expected to live on - it's just that no new content would be added to it. While conducting test searches today, we have learned that Google has discontinued the standalone News Archive Search and integrated its results more fully into its (current) News Search. 

Previously, the Google News Archive Search was located at https://news.google.com/archivesearch and its Advanced Search page was located at https://news.google.com/archivesearch/advanced_search. As of (at least) August 17, the former returns a 404 error now redirects to the (current) Google News Search page and the latter redirects to Google's Web Search Advanced Search page.

After some further digging, we've determined that the News Archive Search isn't completely dead...it's just been integrated so far into the (current) News Search that it can be (more) easily missed.

Search results from Google's (current) News Search display an option in the now-familiar left-hand side bar to filter results by currency (e.g., "Past Hour," "Past month," "2009"). This now includes an option to display only the "Archive" results. The site's notion of what constitutes "archival" news material is pretty loose however. A search conducted on August 17, 2011 considered content from June 17 of the same year to be archival. Once you click the Archive option in the side bar the available options to filter the results by currency change, adding older dates/ranges (e.g., "1949-1950," "1951-1958"). The left-hand-side bar also gives you the option of setting a "Custom Range" of dates within which to display results. Additionally, you can use the News Search's Advanced Search page to set a custom date range before you begin your search.

The standalone News Archive has not completely disappeared, however. It can now be accessed by itself at https://news.google.com/newspapers. This page displays an alphabetical list of the more than 2,000 newspapers whose content makes up the News Archive. The list of newspapers is browseable by scrolling or clicking on one of the letters of the alphabet near the top of the page to jump to the newspapers whose names that begin with the letter you've selected.

There is only a simple search box on this page. There is no Advanced Search page. Searching via this interface eliminates some of the newer content in the search results. Using the same test search mentioned above, the most recent result returned when searching this interface was July 10 of the previous year. Results of searches conducted at this page also include the left-hand side bar and currency filters (although the date ranges in this interface do not extend back as far as the ones noted above). You can set a custom date range from the left-hand side bar as you can in the News Search results. Despite the lack of an Advanced Search page, you can force the News Archive Search to perform more targeted "field" searches by manually including the search operators along with your search terms in the search box. For example, a search for "cold war" source:"New York Times" would return results for the phrase "cold war" only from the "New York Times" no other sources would be considered. Note that these operators must be all lowercase. Also note that despite its inclusion of results from the New York Times in numerous test searches we ran, that paper is not listed in the alphabetical list of newspapers in the archive mentioned above.

The "Timeline" display of results is also no longer available in searches using the Archive-only interface.

The post Google Integrates News Archive Search Into Current News Search, Weakens Archive Search appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Intelius, the Web-based aggregator of public record and publicly available information, has launched a new subscription service that allows individuals and businesses the ability to view and analyze the information that is available online about them. The TrueRep service also allows subscribers to exert some (small) level of control over by suppressing contact information (address and phone number) in selected sites.

In addition to the public record and publicly available information already available in Intelius reports, TrueRep introduces the Reputation Score that offers a quick analysis of the information. The numeric Reputation Score is viewable only by the individual (or business) to whom (which) it belongs. "The score will initially be tallied based on 15 different parameters from an (sic) subscriber’s public profile based on three key areas – stability, trustworthiness and safety," according to Intelius' press release announcing the new service.

The press release goes on to describe the service this way:

TrueRep is fundamentally about providing consumers awareness and control of their online reputation.

• Awareness. After proceeding through an authentication process, new subscribers are shown a summary of their background information available online. Content is presented in five categories: address history, personal information, professional information, criminal records and civil judgments. This information represents the foundation of their digital persona and gives consumers full transparency of the public information – right or wrong – that is associated with them.
• Control. TrueRep introduces several tools for subscribers that can be used to influence how others see them online. The service will enable subscribers to suppress sensitive contact information, including two addresses and one phone number from their online profile so that anyone conducting a people search or background check on certain Intelius sites* will not be able to see that information.** In the future, TrueRep will also enable subscribers additional tools to enable consumers to control their online reputation. 
• Promote. In addition to those tools, TrueRep will also empower subscribers to promote themselves if they wish. Tools are provided so subscribers can improve Google results associated with their name and increase their visibility online.

(Note that the press release desrcibes the limited universe of "Intelius sites" from which users can "supress information," denoted above by the single asterisk as, "Intelius.com, LookUpAnyone.com, PeopleLookUp.com and PublicRecords.com." Intelius further qualifies this limitation by indicating that this list represents the options available "at the beginning of the beta period," adding that they plan to include all of their sites at a later date.) Also note that, in the press release, Intelius refers to "criminal records and civil judgments" as part of the "foundation of their digital persona." While this is true, neither the press release nor TrueRep's Terms and Conditions explain the limitations of online, electronic availability of these records.

“Each of us has a digital footprint that begins to take shape the day our first baby pictures are posted on the web,” Intelius' Chief Privacy Officer Jim Adler noted in the press release. “As that digital identity grows with public records and commercially available information added year after year, the pool of information from which people can formulate a judgment about us continues to evolve. We have reached a point where we can no longer ignore our digital persona but must be aware of it and take steps to control our reputation, online as well as off.”

While much of this information is already available for free or at low cost from other existing sources. TrueReps' aggregation of the information into one report and the calculation of the Reputation Score are novel. While the announcement's claims of being able to manage one's online reputation and control one's digital persona may be a bit hyperbolic, TrueRep does give subscribers the ability to edit/limit/suppress some contact information from a selection of Intelius' constellation of popular people search sites. There is however, no mention of whether that suppression continues after the cancellation of one's TrueRep subscription. (We're awaiting a reply from Intelius/TrueRep on that question.)

The beta release of TrueRep is currently available to existing Intelius customers. Non-customers can subscribe at http://www.truerep.com for $9.95 per month or $89.99 per year. Intelius announced that it expects the beta period "to last several months with new features added during that time to provide more tools and value to subscribers. Intelius expects to launch TrueRep in the Spring of 2011."

The post Intelius Allows Individuals to Monitor and (Somewhat) Control Information Available Online; TrueRep Service Available Now in Beta appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.