Weather History

Do you need to find out what the weather was for a specific date, time and location? You can find the national high and low temperature for every day since April 1995 on this USA TODAY resource page.

Another good resource for current and historical data can be located at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/organization.php.

AT&T Settles Federal Lawsuits Against Data Brokers

Data Brokers who were sued last year by AT&T for data theft of customer telephone records have settled.

The 13 defendants were not initially named in AT&T Services, Inc. v. John Doe, filed in District Courts in Texas and California, until AT&T was able to subpoena the Internet service providers.

The Data Brokers were finally named and a permanent injunction disallows them from conducting similar business in the future. The 13 defendants for whom agreed permanent injunctions have already been obtained are:

Brett Alford of Jacksonville, Fla.; A L Skip, Inc. of Brentwood, Calif.; Michael Alan, Inc. of Arvada, Colo.; Autostar U.S.A., Inc. of Corpus Christi, Texas; DWC Research, Inc. of Tampa, Fla.; EZ Auto Solutions, Inc. of Galt, Calif.; Katherine Martens of Lutz, Fla.; Kym McDaniel of Ellijay, Ga.; Nae-Mo Corporation d/b/a Mathews and Michaels of Dallas, Texas; Nowcom Corporation of Los Angeles, Calif.; Receivables Specialist, Inc. of Tamarac, Fla.; SRG, Inc. of Richardson, Texas; and Trace America, Inc. of Bonita Springs, Fla. AT&T has also reached agreements with two other defendants: Data Research Inc. of Tucson, Ariz., and WMADM, Inc. d/b/a Wm. Maloy Company of Anaheim, Calif., and expects that agreed permanent injunctions against those defendants will be entered soon.

FTC Submits Do Not Call Report for 2006 to Congress

The Commission has approved the issuance of a report to Congress regarding the Do Not Call Registry for Fiscal Year 2006. The report contains information on the following topics:

• An analysis of the effectiveness of the Registry
• The number of consumers who have placed their telephone numbers on the Registry
• The number of entities paying fees to access the Registry and the amount of the fees
• The progress of coordinating the operation and enforcement of the Registry with similar registries maintained by the states
• The progress of coordinating the operation and enforcement of the Registry with enforcement activities of the Federal Communications Commission under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
• FTC enforcement of the Registry under the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The Commission vote approving issuance of the report was 5-0.

132 million Phone Numbers Now on List

Over the past five or so years, dinner time has been a little quieter in America for something like 132 million people. They’re members of the Do Not Call registry; and they’re numbers are growing.

Did the HP Criminal Charges Damage the Wrong Group?

Interesting article; This particular PI is attempting to point the finger at information brokers while at the same time trying to protect the private investigation industry.

If you have been following my blog you are aware of the Hewitt Packard scandal that rocked the entire information industry. While the charges were ultimately dropped against most of the players in that scandal, the damage has already been done.

Online Detective Web Sites - A Scam?

Choosing to investigate an individual or company is no longer an option that can be overlooked in our society today – investigating an individual or company is a necessity. Protecting yourself, your family, your business, your friends, and your investments relies on knowing who you are dealing with from day to day.

Case in point; Net Detective and others just like it lure you in with promises of teaching how to find information on your neighbor or spouse, they even promise you that if you buy their product you will be able to locate unlisted phone numbers, get names for wireless numbers and more.

How do they do all this for a one-time fee of $19.95 or $29.95? They DON'T! The program you buy simply is a categorized list of website links where you can go to PAY for the results desired. Scam?

Online Databases - To Do or Not To Do?

The Internet has created a proliferation of databases. You name, it's probably out there, from invisible court information databases to a public personal information history database. Everything from finding former classmates to recipes for crème brulee.

The question is; do you want to save time and sometimes money by hiring an unknown entity on the worldwide web to find the data you’re looking for? Or is it in your best interest to bypass the websites without a contact number and/or the opportunity to talk to a real person about what it is you are REALLY looking for?

Click here to read more!

Obtaining Criminal Records

There are three basic methods for obtaining the criminal records of any individual – a nationwide investigation, a state investigation, and finally a county investigation. Deciding on which method is right for you will depend largely on your situation and needs. All methods are beneficial in the long run, but obviously, each method will tell different degrees of information.

If you are conducting a criminal records search as part of a background check for possible employment, you can NOT rely on database information.

For example, if you are checking the background on an individual for potential employment and you find a source on the Internet that offers nationwide criminal checks and/or statewide criminal checks for a small fee - DO NOT USE THEIR DATA FOR THIS APPLICATION. Reason being is that not all states or national entities send their criminal records to one repository.

The legal and thorough way to process this criminal background check is to get an address history from the applicant and run their information through a licensed investigation agency that will send a representative to the county courthouse and hand search all records.