The gate is the product.

Purpose is captured per search

Not per account, not per session — per search. Every request carries a purpose_code and, where applicable, a matter reference. If the code is missing, or the account is not credentialed for that purpose against that data class, the request returns 403 before any upstream call is made.

That constraint is deliberate and it is not configurable. It is the difference between a platform that can prove why a search happened and one that can only assert it.

Credentialing

Before an account is activated we verify:

• Entity registration and standing
• Professional licence, where the account type requires one
• The nature of the business and its typical matters
• Which permissible purposes genuinely apply
• A signed access agreement
• A named account administrator

Accounts are provisioned with only the data classes their verified purposes support. An account credentialed for judgment enforcement does not get DPPA-restricted data because it asked nicely.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

GLBA restricts access to consumers’ nonpublic personal financial information and makes it unlawful to obtain customer information from a financial institution under false pretenses. Nothing on this platform is obtained by pretexting, and we do not source from any provider that does.

Driver’s Privacy Protection Act

Motor vehicle data is restricted to accounts with a verified DPPA permissible use, recorded per search. Accounts without one cannot reach it — the endpoint returns 403 rather than an empty result, so there is no ambiguity about what happened.

Fair Credit Reporting Act — we are not a CRA

Lodestone Data is not a consumer reporting agency, and nothing furnished here is a consumer report. Data may not be used to determine eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, housing, or any other FCRA-regulated purpose.

This is enforced, not merely disclaimed: account types are configured to block screening-shaped access, and usage patterns consistent with employment or tenant screening trigger review. If you need FCRA-compliant screening, you need a consumer reporting agency, and we will tell you so rather than take your money.

Retention

• Search results are retained for 30 days and then purged automatically
• The search log — who, when, what purpose, what result — is retained longer, because that is the compliance record and the reason to keep it outlives the reason to keep the payload
• Subject identifiers are stored hashed, not in the clear
• Extended result retention is available as a paid option

Holding fewer results for less time reduces what can be breached or subpoenaed from us — which is your exposure as much as ours.

What gets an account suspended

• Searches without an articulable permissible purpose
• Any FCRA-regulated use
• Usage patterns consistent with stalking or harassment
• Searching a person who holds a protective order against the account holder
• Sharing credentials outside the credentialed entity
• Reselling access without a written agreement

We monitor for these and we act on them. An account that costs us our own data agreements is worth less than the agreements.