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The Perils of an "Internet Search-Only" Strategy
Here is a breakdown of the risks and limitations of an "internet search-only" approach to international court records, particularly compared to the standard of care upheld by experienced providers:
???? The Perils of an "Internet Search-Only" Strategy
| Feature | Primary Source Retrieval (Best Practice) | Internet/Database Search (Newcomer Focus) |
| Data Source | Records retrieved directly from the government entity: a physical courthouse, a police precinct, or an official, secure digital government portal. | Commercial data aggregators, public domain news, social media, or outdated, non-official databases. |
| Accuracy & Recency | Highest. Information is the most accurate and up-to-date as of the moment of search. Crucial for verifying expungements or recent convictions. | Low. Databases are notoriously outdated, missing recent dispositions, or including records that have been legally expunged/dismissed. |
| Completeness | Searches are conducted against the full criminal index for the relevant jurisdiction. | Low. Only captures records that the data aggregator was able to scrape, often missing entire regions, local courts, or records not yet digitized. |
| Compliance | Strict adherence to the local country's privacy laws (e.g., GDPR in Europe, specific APAC regulations) and global standards like FCRA. | Extremely High Risk. You cannot prove the data source, the purpose for which it was collected, or that it is legally permissible to use in a hiring decision. |
| Identity Verification | Often requires an official ID number, biometrics, or a unique identifier to ensure a true match. | Relies solely on a name and date of birth, leading to a high risk of false positives (confusing two people with the same name) or false negatives (missing a record because the database spelling was off). |
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