Public records are referred as the information such as individual, property and corporate records those are filed or recorded by the public organizations. In other words, local or federal government stores the public records. These include recording of immigration records, real estate records, criminal records, vital records, driving records etc. It also may be recorded by the individuals for instance in case of voter registrations, magazine subscriptions etc.



The main part of the public records are generally preserved by the government and can be accessed by the public with either for a fees or free-of-charge, depending upon the nature of the information the person is seeking. The accessibility to information, nevertheless, is solely determined by the state, federal and the local parameters.

The storing of public records:

The storing of such records is done in physical file format. The data are sometimes available through internet and other sources. Although the public records seem to be available to public in times of necessity, it is not always easy for the public to have an access to it. Moreover, there are some Clauses in the constitution, restricting it to be viewed by the general people. It should also be noted that without the consent of the owner, except in some exceptional cases, personal information can not be disclosed.

Availability of public records:

Nowadays, there are several businesses claiming to offer all types of records to the people in the corporate, managerial, government, academics, and in the accounting markets. In a real world, things are not always in true taste as some of the companies just sell the basic information with a promise to access all the records.

In the US, access to public records is determined by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The version of FOIA varies from state to state; some makes it very easier to access while other makes it quite restricted. The most flexible access can be achieved in New York while the request to access public records is most difficult in Pennsylvania. Sometimes, the third party intuitions such as information broker use public information in regular basis to accumulate profiles of thousands of people.

Because of the advancement of the modern technology and internet, the access to public records to any US citizen has increased drastically. So, the maintaining of such records enables the government to be much more transparent and accountable for its operations and actions.