Shawn Stephenson⚠️ Legal Notice: Background check access and permissible use are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and state equivalents. This guide explains how background check systems work and where they fail. It does not constitute legal advice. Why This Guide Is Reliable inet-investigation.com publishes research-based guides built on primary government sources, investigative practice, … Read more
⚠️ Legal Notice: Expungement and record sealing laws vary significantly by state and jurisdiction. This guide explains how these legal mechanisms affect public records access for research purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. If you are seeking to expunge or seal your own records, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. Why This … Read more
Clean slate laws are state statutes that automatically seal or expunge certain criminal records after a defined waiting period — without requiring the record holder to file a petition, hire an attorney, or take any action at all. As of early 2025, more than a dozen states have enacted some form of automatic record relief, … Read more
A criminal record is the documented history of a person’s interactions with the criminal justice system — including arrests, charges, convictions, sentences, and in some cases probation or parole status — as recorded across law enforcement agencies, courts, and corrections systems at the local, state, and federal level. These records exist in multiple separate systems … Read more
Reading a court case is the process of extracting investigatively useful information from the documents and records generated by legal proceedings — including the docket, the complaint or indictment, motions, orders, and final judgments. These documents exist in public court systems and are legally accessible, but they are written for attorneys and judges, not for … Read more
Court records are legal documents created and maintained by the judicial system — including case filings, judgments, orders, transcripts, and dockets — that document every stage of civil, criminal, family, probate, and bankruptcy proceedings from the moment a case is initiated through its final disposition. These records exist in publicly accessible databases because the principle … Read more
OPSEC for social media investigations is the practice of controlling what information is generated, exposed, or logged when researching a subject’s online presence across social platforms — including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter) — without alerting the subject, exposing the investigator’s identity, or triggering platform notification systems. These controls exist because every major social … Read more
An anonymous background check is a search conducted using public records, people-search platforms, and OSINT sources in a way that prevents the platform from logging your real identity, prevents the subject from being notified that a search occurred, and leaves no traceable connection between the investigator and the investigation. These searches are necessary because most … Read more
Investigating someone is the process of collecting and verifying information about a person using public records, court filings, government databases, and online sources. This process exists because personal information is distributed across multiple disconnected systems — court portals, property databases, business registrations, social media, and commercial data aggregators — that must be searched and connected … Read more
Evidence handling in investigative research is the process of collecting, preserving, documenting, and storing digital findings in a manner that maintains their integrity, establishes their provenance, and ensures they remain usable if the investigation produces legal proceedings. Metadata is the embedded data layer within digital files that records how, when, where, and by whom a … Read more