Guides

Plain-language guides to skip tracing, identity data, and the rules that govern using consumer records — written for the teams that do this work every day.

• What is skip tracing? How it works in 2026

  Skip tracing is the process of locating a person's current contact information using records they have left behind. How it works, who uses it, and the rules.

• Is skip tracing legal? The rules that decide

  Skip tracing is legal in the U.S. when done with lawfully sourced data for a permitted purpose. Where the FCRA, DPPA, GLBA, and conduct laws draw the lines.

• Skip tracing software — the four kinds and how to choose

  The four kinds of skip tracing software compared, what each actually costs, and how to judge data freshness, match transparency, and pricing before you buy.

• Skip tracing for real estate — reaching property owners

  How real estate investors skip trace property owners — finding absentee owners, tracing from just an address, per-hit costs, and the outreach rules to follow.

• Skip tracing API — locate people programmatically

  A REST API for skip tracing: search 250M+ consumer records by name, phone, email, or address, get labeled match tiers and confidence scores, pay per lookup.

• Identity verification API — database checks without ID uploads

  How database-match identity checks work, when they beat document IDV, and how to call CoverFi's identity check API — free, no ID upload, 250M+ people.

• Identity resolution — how record matching actually works

  Identity resolution, entity resolution, and record linkage explained — deterministic vs probabilistic matching and how pool-and-score pipelines rank people.

• TCPA compliance — what callers and texters need to know

  What the TCPA requires for calls and texts, the penalties per violation, the Reassigned Numbers Database, and how stale phone data creates wrong-party risk.

• FCRA vs non-FCRA data — where the line actually sits

  What makes a data use FCRA-regulated, what non-FCRA consumer data may be used for, and why the same record can be legal for one purpose and illegal for another.

• DPPA permissible use, explained in plain language

  The Driver's Privacy Protection Act restricts motor-vehicle record data to enumerated permissible uses. What the 14 uses are and how attestations work.

Reference

• Records & identity glossary

  Plain-language definitions for consumer-records and identity terms — match tiers, confidence scores, masking, DPV, carrier routes, and FIPS codes.

• CoverFi data dictionary

  Every field in CoverFi's consumer-records dataset — identity, alternate names, address history, phones, emails — with plain-English descriptions and types.

• Frequently asked questions

  Answers about CoverFi's free identity checks, record search, credits and refunds, the API, data sources, masking, and privacy rights — in plain language.