Intelius

Intelius, Inc.

Type	Privately held company
Industry	Information commerce
Genre	Electronic commerce
Founded	January 2003
Founder(s)	Naveen Jain, John Arnold, Ed Petersen, Kevin Marcus, Niraj Shah, Chandan Chauhan
Headquarters	Bellevue, Washington, United States
Area served	United States
Key people	Bill Owens, Chairman Rich Karlgaard, Director Chris Kitze, Director Georgette Mosbacher, Director Paul Cook, CFO Peter Currie, Director Bill Kerr, Chief Corporate Officer Peter Currie, Director Arthur Harrigan, Director
Services	Background checks, Identity theft protection
Revenue	$128,000,000 (2008)
Employees	350 [1]
Website	http://www.intelius.com

Intelius, Inc. is a public records business headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, United States.^[1] It provides information services to consumers and businesses, including background checks and identity theft protection.^[2] A majority of Intelius' revenue comes from selling background reports.^[3][4]

Contents 1 History 2 Market 2.1 Background Checks for Dating 2.2 Employer Background Checks 3 Controversies 3.1 Class action lawsuits 3.2 Cellular Phone Directory 3.3 Post-Transaction Marketing 3.4 Opt-out Policy 3.5 Consumer complaints 4 Recognition 5 Philanthropy 6 References

History

Intelius was founded in 2003^[5] by six former Infospace executives: Naveen Jain, Kevin Marcus, Niraj Shah, Ed Petersen, Chandan Chauhan and John Arnold.^[6] Jain was then sued by InfoSpace for allegedly violating noncompete agreements, mishandling business-specific secrets and interfering with InfoSpace's customer relationships.^[7] The judge ruled in favor of Jain, citing a lack of "clear and convincing evidence" that there was a violation of noncompete agreements.^[8]

Intelius filed a registration statement on January 10, 2008 for an initial public offering to raise up to $143.75 million.^[9] The plans were withdrawn October 2010.^[10]

In late 2010, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Kevin Marcus left the company to join BigTip.^[11]

In October 2011, Jain stated that an IPO might be in the company's future in 2012.^[12]

In November 2011, Intelius purchased the Facebook genealogy app Family Builder.^[13] During the same month, the company announced the inclusion of TrueRep to its services. This program allows consumers to provide explanations for any indiscretions on their records.^[14][15][16]

Market

Background Checks for Dating

Intelius targets marketing for consumers with an interest in dating, especially online dating. It provides background checks and verification of identity under the InteliSign brand.^[4] Industry experts point out the advertising campaign's reliance on "scare tactics".^[1][17] Intelius has created an application for mobile devices that allows users to do a quick background check on a potential date.^[18]

Employer Background Checks

On December 5, 2006, Intelius enlarged its employment screening market with its acquisition of Bothell, Washington's IntelliSense Corporation, integrating an infrastructure capable of international background information, fingerprinting and drug screening to complement its previous capabilities for small and medium businesses.^[19]

On April 30, 2009, Intelius acquired Spock, a people-oriented search engine.^[20]

Controversies

Class action lawsuits

On September 30, 2009, before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, a class action lawsuit was filed alleging that Intelius automatically enrolled California consumers into programs of its partner, Adaptive Marketing, without permission.^[21] The complaint showed evidence as to how the defendants allegedly automatically charged California consumers' credit cards for "memberships" and intentionally frustrated the victims' abilities to dispute the charges.^[22]

On October 19, 2009, in the Federal Court in Seattle, Intelius was accused of violating Washington's Consumer Protection Act. This lawsuit stated that Intelius engaged in misleading messages on its website. Such conduct allegedly led consumers to unknowingly receive charges from Intelius' partner, Adaptive Marketing. The suit, filed by Washington resident Bruce Keithly and Ohio residents Donovon Lee and Edith Cramer, claimed that after purchasing background reports through Intelius the plaintiffs were each charged a $19.95 monthly fee for subscription services which were not requested. While Intelius has publicly stated a disassociation with Adaptive Marketing, the outcome of this lawsuit is still pending.^[23]

Cellular Phone Directory

In early 2008, Intelius came under scrutiny for providing access to private cellular phone numbers culled from a variety of sources.^[24] In response, Verizon threatened a lawsuit over posting consumer phone numbers without consent.^[25] On February 1, 2008, the cellular phone directory was removed from the company website.^[26][27]

Post-Transaction Marketing

Washington State Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau received over 900 complaints about Intelius as of March 2009. Most complaints involved the practice of "post-transaction marketing." Partly due to concerns about Intelius, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna requested legislation aimed at stopping what he calls "deceptive" Internet marketing.^[28]

On August 10, 2010, Washington settled with Intelius for $1.3 million dollars and any Washington consumers affected by post-transaction marketing will be contacted regarding refunds. ^[29]

Opt-out Policy

Criticism has also arisen due to the difficult nature of "opting out" of being listed on Intelius.^[26] The company's website states that "Intelius does not usually offer individuals the opportunity to permanently remove their publicly available information from our public records databases."^[30] Instead, the website states that the personal information may be suppressed by a user's request after he or she mails or faxes a notarized letter and copy of his or her driver's license, in order to confirm the person's identity.^[26]

Consumer complaints

The Better Business Bureau of Alaska, Oregon and Western Washington has cataloged numerous complaints about the company's customer service, including a continual refusal to provide refunds to customers who claim not to have requested or received the services that they paid for.^[31] Additional complaints have been made about misleading advertising and background information that has been inaccurate or out-of-date. According to the BBB, the company is not a member, and does not always respond when contacted by them.^[32]

Recognition

In December 2011, Intelius was awarded the Red Herring Top 100 Global Award.^[33][34]

In 2009, the company was listed among the "500 Fastest Growing Private Companies" by Inc. Magazine.^[35] That same year, the Puget Sound Business Journal mentioned Intelius as a "2009 Best Places to Work" finalist.^[36]

In 2008, Intelius was a finalist for the Stevie Award for "Best New Product or Service."^[37]

Philanthropy

In 2011, Intelius awarded two Singularity University Scholarships for the Graduate Studies Program to African leaders in business and science to solve poverty and gender disparity.^[38]

In June 2011, the company awarded five scholarships to high school students via the Intelius Essay contest.^[39]

References