The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) doesn't let you delete accurate information from a background check. What it does is limit how long most negative information can be reported, give you the right to see what a background check company has on you, and require the company to investigate and correct or delete anything inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable, usually within 30 days of your dispute. Arrest records, civil judgments and collections generally drop off after seven years and bankruptcies after ten. Criminal convictions have no federal time limit.
Who the FCRA covers
The FCRA governs consumer reporting agencies: anyone who, for a fee, "regularly engages in whole or in part in the practice of assembling or evaluating consumer credit information or other information on consumers for the purpose of furnishing consumer reports to third parties" (15 U.S.C. §1681a(f)).
A consumer report is information "bearing on a consumer's credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living" (§1681a(d)(1)), used for purposes such as credit, insurance or employment decisions.
That covers the three nationwide credit bureaus, and also specialty companies. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) publishes a list of consumer reporting companies, current as of January 2025, grouped by market: employment screening, tenant screening, check and bank account screening, insurance, medical, telecom and utilities, and others.
Where people-search sites fit
Some people-search sites carry disclaimers saying they are not consumer reporting agencies. The FTC has twice found that a disclaimer didn't settle the question:
- In 2012, Spokeo paid a civil penalty to settle FTC charges that it operated as a consumer reporting agency by marketing profiles to human resources, background screening and recruiting companies without following the FCRA.
- In September 2023, TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate agreed to a $5.8 million penalty. The FTC said that "despite disclaimers on their websites," they had operated as consumer reporting agencies because they marketed and sold background reports for employment and tenant screening. The FTC also described a "Remove" button that hid disputed information only from the customer who clicked it, while "the same item of information remained visible to other customers."
For an ordinary people-search listing, use the site's opt-out process rather than an FCRA dispute. Our opt-out guides cover both kinds of site, including TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate.
What can be reported, and for how long
Section 1681c(a) says a consumer report may not contain:
- Bankruptcy cases that "antedate the report by more than 10 years."
- "Civil suits, civil judgments, and records of arrest" more than seven years old, "or until the governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is the longer period."
- Paid tax liens more than seven years after payment.
- Accounts placed for collection or charged off more than seven years earlier.
- "Any other adverse item of information, other than records of convictions of crimes," more than seven years old.
Two points matter:
- Convictions are excluded from the time limit. The seven-year rule in item 5 expressly doesn't apply to "records of convictions of crimes," so federal law doesn't stop a conviction from being reported however old it is. Check your state's law as well.
- High-value exceptions. Section 1681c(b) lifts these limits for credit transactions and life insurance above set dollar amounts, and for employment at a salary above a set amount. The thresholds are in the statute.
Getting your file
The CFPB's advice comes in three steps: request, review, dispute. Get your report from the companies on its list "often for free," then check it for errors.
If an employer turned you down because of a background check, the FTC says the employer must give you the name, address and phone number of the background reporting company, a copy of the report, and a "Summary of Rights." You can ask that company for a free copy of your report within "60 days of the employer's decision." Before running the check at all, the employer must tell you, in a standalone document, that it may use the information in decisions about you, and get your permission.
Disputing inaccurate information
Section 1681i sets the process:
- Free, within 30 days. Once a company receives your dispute, it must run a reasonable reinvestigation "free of charge" within 30 days.
- Up to 15 more days if you send relevant information during that period.
- Delete or fix. If the information "is found to be inaccurate or incomplete or cannot be verified," the company "shall promptly delete that item of information from the file of the consumer, or modify that item."
- Results in writing within 5 business days of finishing.
- Your statement. If the dispute isn't resolved your way, you may add a brief statement of the dispute to your file.
- Frivolous disputes. A company may stop investigating if it reasonably decides a dispute is frivolous or irrelevant, which is why a specific dispute with documents works better than a general one.
A dispute letter you can adapt
To: [the consumer reporting company's dispute address]
Subject: Dispute of inaccurate information, 15 U.S.C. §1681i
I am disputing the following information in my consumer file:
Name: [your name]
Date of birth: [if the company needs it to find your file]
Report or reference number: [if you have one]
Item disputed: [describe the item exactly as it appears]
Why it is wrong: [e.g. not my record / older than the reporting
period in 15 U.S.C. §1681c(a) / dismissed / sealed]
Supporting documents: [list what you are enclosing]
Please conduct a reasonable reinvestigation under 15 U.S.C.
§1681i, and delete or correct any item that is inaccurate,
incomplete or cannot be verified. Please send me the results
in writing.
Send copies, not originals, and keep a record of the date the company received it.
FCRA data and state deletion laws
Data covered by the FCRA usually sits outside other privacy laws. California's DROP platform, for example, lists "information that affects your credit score (Fair Credit Reporting Act)" among the data it doesn't cover. Our page on California DROP explains the rest of what it covers, and state privacy laws with a right to delete notes similar exemptions elsewhere.
That means a deletion request is the wrong tool for an accurate, in-period item in a background check, and the dispute process is the right one for an inaccurate item. Investigator and skip-tracing databases such as TLOxp sit in between; our skip-tracing topic page covers what an opt-out can and can't do there.
Removal is not guaranteed under any of these routes. A dispute gets you an investigation and a written answer, and inaccurate or unverifiable items must be corrected or deleted, but accurate information within the reporting period can lawfully stay.