Intelius
| Company type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Information commerce |
| Genre | Electronic commerce |
| Founded | January 2003 |
| Founder | Naveen Jain and others |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, United States |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Abani Heller, CEO & President |
| Services | People Search, Background checks |
Number of employees | Approximately 150 |
| Parent | PeopleConnect, Inc. |
| Website | Intelius.com |
Intelius, Inc. is a U.S.-based company specializing in public records services, with its headquarters located in Seattle, Washington. The firm provides various information solutions such as searches for individuals and properties, background investigations, as well as reverse lookups for phone numbers and addresses. Established in 2003 by former executives from InfoSpace, Intelius currently operates under the corporate entity PeopleConnect, Inc.
History
The inception of Intelius dates back to 2003 when six ex-Infospace executives—Naveen Jain, Kevin Marcus, Niraj Shah, Ed Petersen, Chandan Chauhan, and John Arnold—came together to launch the company. Although Intelius filed for an initial public offering in January 2008, it ultimately retracted these plans by October 2010.
On December 5, 2006, Intelius expanded its capabilities by acquiring IntelliSense Corporation based in Bothell, which specialized in background screening services including fingerprinting and drug testing. This division later evolved into TalentWise and was spun off to Intelius shareholders in May 2013. Additionally, on April 30, 2009, Intelius broadened its offerings through the acquisition of Spock, a search engine focused on people.
In November 2011, the company acquired Family Builder, a genealogy application integrated with Facebook. The following year, Intelius adopted the corporate name "inome" as an umbrella brand while continuing to use the Intelius name specifically for its background check services. By 2015, the business reverted to operating primarily under the Intelius brand.
On July 1, 2015, private equity firm H.I.G. Capital completed the acquisition of Intelius and appointed Abani Heller as CEO. Soon after this transaction, PeopleConnect Holdings Inc. acquired Classmates.com for $30 million—a pioneering social networking site established in 1995 that connects former schoolmates and colleagues.
Information services
Intelius provides a mobile application compatible with both Android and iOS platforms that allows users to conduct people searches, reverse phone number lookups, and background checks conveniently from their smartphones or tablets. As part of PeopleConnect’s portfolio, Intelius is one of four people search websites—including TruthFinder and InstantCheckmate—that share a consolidated opt-out mechanism across these services.
Class action lawsuits
On September 30, 2009, a class action complaint was initiated in California accusing Intelius of enrolling consumers into affiliated programs without explicit permission and charging credit cards for memberships while making cancellation difficult. Subsequently, on October 19, 2009, a separate lawsuit filed in Washington State alleged violations of the Consumer Protection Act related to recurring monthly fees of $19.95 imposed by Intelius’ partner Adaptive Marketing for unrequested subscription services.
In the case Lee v. Intelius Inc., the U.S. District Court ruled favorably for the plaintiff class on March 7, 2013. This verdict was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on December 16, 2013, which dismissed Intelius’ arguments concerning contract terms and arbitration clauses. Following these judicial decisions, Intelius consented to arbitration proceedings and reached a settlement agreement resulting in a total payout of $10.5 million to affected class members.
Consumer grievances
In 2008, the company ceased offering its telephone directory services after facing legal pressure and unfavorable media coverage due to claims that opting out was unduly complicated. Additionally, it encountered backlash for distributing private mobile phone numbers.
A class action lawsuit was initiated on September 30, 2009, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, accusing Intelius of enrolling California consumers into affiliated programs without their consent and billing credit cards for "memberships," while making it difficult to contest these charges. Subsequently, on October 19, 2009, Intelius was sued again in Federal Court in Seattle for breaching Washington's Consumer Protection Act.
Thousands of complaints were filed against Intelius regarding marketing practices following transactions and misleading credit card billing. The Washington Attorney General pursued legal action against the company, culminating in a $1.3 million settlement in August 2010. In November 2011, Intelius introduced TrueRep, a platform enabling consumers to address and clarify any adverse information appearing on their records.