Public records refers to information that has been filed or recorded by public agencies, such as corporate and property records. Public records are created by the federal and local government, (vital records, immigration records, real estate records, driving records, criminal records, etc.) or by the individual (magazine subscriptions, voter registration, etc.).
With the advancement of the Internet and the Information Age, access to public records in the U.S. has become easily available to anyone who wishes to view them. Third party information broker make regular use of public records to compile profiles on millions of people and make it easily avalible to the market. Many private matters such as the full accounts of divorce cases, insurance lawsuits, voter registration (varying from state to state), and almost any other transactions people make with the government or do through a courthouse, is put into public records and made available for all eyes of society.
