BeenVerified is a background check company that provides consumer initiated criminal background and people search services through its website for profit as well as its

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

lication ''"Background Check App."'' The company also launched additional mobile applications including a reverse number look up called '' NumberGuru'' and a registered sex offender tracking app that uses

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

to locate sex offenders.

History

Founded in 2007, Josh Levy and Ross Cohen launched BeenVerified in 2009 and began advertising on national

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, as well as on the back of garbage trucks. Initially, the company included a service called ''StandOut'' that allowed people to check and verify their own background information to use as a marketing tool online in the form of an embeddable seal as well as see what information employers could potentially find out about them. Levy and Cohen have discussed the company's pivot from originally focusing on the small business market to becoming a consumer-focused background check service in ''Inc.'' and ''

CIO Magazine ''CIO'' is a magazine related to technology and IT. The magazine was founded in 1987 and is now entirely digital. The name refers to the job title chief information officer. ''CIO'' is part of Boston-based International Data Group's enterprise ...

''. In 2009, BeenVerified launched an iPhone application called the ''Background Check App'', allowing users to use the service on their

iPhones The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at M ...

. It was the second background check app for the iOS platform behind the DateCheck app launched by

Intelius Intelius, Inc. is an American public records business headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It provides information services, including people and property search, background checks and reverse phone lookup. Users also have the ability to perform ...

a year earlier. In 2010, BeenVerified released a sex offender tracking app for both

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android platforms. The app uses public records such as sex offender registries,

geolocation Geopositioning is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object or a person. Geopositioning yields a set of Geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinates (such as latitude and longitude) in a given map datum ...

services, and

to show users the location of sex offenders. The company released another app in 2011 called ''"Number Guru"'', a free reverse phone number look up service. BeenVerified ranked #26 on the Inc. 5000 list for 2013, including being named the fastest growing company in New York. The company reported revenues of $13.7 million in 2012. In 2015, BeenVerified launched a caller ID and reverse phone lookup app for the

Apple Watch The Apple Watch is a brand of smartwatch products developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple. It incorporates activity tracker, fitness tracking, Health (Apple), health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates wit ...

Services

BeenVerified uses traditional background methods in addition to

Web 2.0 Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture, and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, a ...

and

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

ing to return results to a requesting user. Users enter the name and/or email address of the person they are requesting information on and are given information from public records and other privately licensed databases of public record information. The Background Check App released allows users to run background checks with a smartphone. The app uses names and email addresses to run background checks through its website, with the capability of checking anyone in a user's contact list. The services at BeenVerified are not free, and users must pay for access through either a one- or three-month billing plan. BeenVerified has an opt-out process for anyone wanting to remove their own information from the site. The company has also come under scrutiny in the past for its opt-out process and works with companies to remove their information upon request.

References

External links

* {{Official website Online person databases Internet properties established in 2007 Companies based in New York City 2007 establishments in New York City