Skip Tracing
The practice of locating a person's current whereabouts by piecing together data from many sources, originally to find debtors who "skipped" town.
Full definition
Skip tracing combines public records, credit-header data, utility and phone records, social media, and broker databases to locate an individual, traditionally used by debt collectors, bail bondsmen, process servers, and private investigators. Modern skip-tracing tools may use data brokers and people-search aggregators. The same kinds of records can be misused for stalking or harassment, so removing or suppressing one broker listing may reduce one source of exposure, but it is not a complete defensive guarantee.
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Opt out of people-search sites →Related terms
People-Search Site
A subtype of data broker that offers public-facing search of individuals by name, phone, address, or email.
Public Records
Government-maintained records that may be open to public inspection under applicable law, including property records, court filings, voter rolls, and business registrations.
Pretexting
Obtaining someone's personal information by deception, posing as the person or as someone authorized to receive the data.
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