Top Choice
Instant Checkmate
Criminal-record and social-profile search option.
View Records Sponsored partner optionWhat should you know about this search?
Direct answer
Yes. You can obtain several kinds of background information about yourself online, but the route depends on the file: request relevant consumer reports from reporting companies, use official court or agency sources for public records, and use the fingerprint-based FBI process when you need your federal Identity History Summary.
Choose the self-check route that matches the file
| What you want to review | Best starting point | Important boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer-report data | Relevant nationwide or specialty consumer reporting company | The file reflects that company’s data and market area, not every public record |
| Federal fingerprint identity history | FBI Identity History Summary process | It is fingerprint-based and is not a general name-search service |
| Court case | Court or official docket system | Read the current docket and disposition in the jurisdiction that owns the case |
| People-search compilation | Personal-use search as a discovery aid | Trace consequential facts to the original source before relying on them |
A self-check is most useful when you can act on what you find
Identity
Correct mistaken subject matches
Compare names, addresses, dates, aliases, and other identifiers before disputing a record.
Status
Find missing case updates
A filing may later be dismissed, satisfied, released, sealed, or otherwise changed.
Source
Know where to send a correction
The reporting company and the underlying record owner can have different correction roles.
Documentation
Keep proof of changes
Save court orders, agency letters, corrected reports, or other records that support a dispute.
Build your personal review in a repeatable order
1
List likely report categoriesConsider employment screening, tenant screening, credit-related files, criminal-history sources, court records, or other files relevant to your situation.2
Request the files you can accessUse the reporting company or official agency route rather than relying only on a general search engine result.3
Compare to original recordsWhen a report contains a serious public-record item, open the current court, agency, or registry source.4
Dispute at the correct layerIf the report is wrong, identify whether the error sits in the consumer report, the originating public record, or both, and follow the appropriate correction path.Do not expect one self-check to reproduce every report another organization might order
Different screeners can use different consumer reporting companies, source packages, jurisdictions, and identity methods. A personal background check can therefore help you identify and correct likely problems without guaranteeing that every future report will look identical. The goal is to understand the main files and source records that describe you, not to recreate an unknown vendor configuration.
If you know the name of the company that prepared a prior employment or tenant report, that information can make the self-check much more targeted. When you do not know the provider, begin with the relevant consumer-report categories and the public-record sources most closely connected to the purpose.