Spokeo Corporate Office

 Spokeo was founded in 2006 by four graduates from Stanford University—Mike Daly, Harrison Tang, Ray Chen, and Eric Liang. Originally, Spokeo was operated out of Tang’s basement.

The company operates a people search website that aggregates data from online and offline sources.

The site has evolved to become an information-gathering website that offers various options for finding information about people. It purports to know, among other things, one’s income, religion, spouse’s name, credit status, the number of people in the household, a satellite shot of the house, and its estimated value.

In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined Spokeo $800,000 for marketing information to human resource departments for employment screening without adhering to consumer protection provided by the Fair Credit Reporting Act—the first FTC fine involving personal data collected online and sold to potential employers.

The site not only tracks people, but businesses as well, noting a company’s gross margin, production, and annual revenue.

Spokeo maintains a corporate office in Pasadena, California.