Mechanism
How a Sleuthify search actually works
Seven steps, in order, from the purpose you declare to the day the file is deleted. This is the machinery, written out — you should not have to take a records service on faith.
Short answer
Verified
A Sleuthify search runs in seven stages: you declare a purpose and sign a prohibited-use attestation, the planner selects connectors your tier permits and your identifiers can key, the collector queries them within each operator’s limits, candidates are scored for identity confidence, every claim is footnoted to its record, the gaps are listed, and the file is purged on a published retention schedule.
Step 01
You state a purpose, and sign for it
Before any collection runs, you pick a purpose from a closed list and answer an explicit checklist of things the report may not be used for. Silence is not a pass — every item must be answered, because an unanswered question is what a plaintiff's lawyer would call wilful blindness. A prohibited answer ends the case there and is recorded.
The 11 purposes we accept, and the basis each one relies on. Purpose Lawful basis we rely on Also required See what's publicly findable about meMinimum tier: Preliminary Scan The subject is the client. Consent is inherent. — Evidence for a legal proceeding I'm party to (or counsel on)Minimum tier: Records Report PIPEDA s.7(3)(c) — collection and disclosure required for a legal proceeding. Court records are separately publicly available under SOR/2001-7(d). A written explanation of the matter; A file or matter reference Enforce a judgment or collect a debt I'm legally owedMinimum tier: Records Report The client holds an enforceable entitlement. Asset and lien records are statutory public registries under SOR/2001-7(c). A written explanation of the matter; Judgment, order, or written acknowledgement of the debt. Due diligence on a business counterparty or investmentMinimum tier: Records Report Business-contact and public-registry information; PIPEDA s.4.01 and SOR/2001-7(b)-(c). Directors and officers appear in registries as a function of holding office. A written explanation of the matter Investigate suspected fraud against me or my businessMinimum tier: Records Report PIPEDA s.7(1)(b) and s.7(3)(d.1) — collection reasonable for detecting or suppressing fraud. A written explanation of the matter A family law matter — separation, support, or propertyMinimum tier: Records Report PIPEDA s.7(3)(c) — related to an actual or anticipated family law proceeding, including financial disclosure and asset identification.Scoped to the financial and factual record: assets, corporate interests, property, and litigation history. We do not surveil, follow, or observe. A written explanation of the matter Find someone I've lost contact with, or who owes me somethingMinimum tier: Records Report Statutory public registries and telephone directories under SOR/2001-7(a) and (c). The reason for the locate must be stated and is recorded.We will not release a located address where any protection order, peace bond, or no-contact condition exists in either direction — including one we discover during the search. A written explanation of the matter Administer an estate — find heirs, assets, or creditorsMinimum tier: Records Report The client's legal duty as executor, administrator, or trustee. Probate and land records are public registries. A written explanation of the matter; Grant of probate, certificate of appointment, or will naming the client. Verify someone is who they say they are before I deal with themMinimum tier: Records Report The client's own safety and financial interest. Scope limited to confirming or contradicting the identity presented to the client.The deliverable answers one question: is the identity this person presented to you consistent with the public record? It is not a general dossier. A written explanation of the matter Journalism or research in the public interestMinimum tier: Records Report PIPEDA s.4(2)(c) — the Act does not apply to collection for journalistic, artistic, or literary purposes. A written explanation of the matter; A file or matter reference Sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media screening on a counterpartyMinimum tier: Records Report PCMLTFA obligations or equivalent risk-management duty. Sanctions lists are published by governments for exactly this use. — Attestation text version 2026-08-12.1. Anything not on this list is refused, and the refusal is recorded against the account. Step 02
We plan which sources to touch
The planner picks connectors by three constraints: the source classes your tier permits, the jurisdictions in play, and the identifiers you were able to give us. A connector we cannot key is a connector we do not run, which is why intake asks for more than feels necessary — each extra identifier is often the difference between a result and no result rather than a marginal improvement.
What each identifier unlocks, and how many of our connectors can use it. Identifier Why it matters Connectors Full legal name The base key for nearly every connector we run. 37 Business or entity name Corporate registries, securities filings, and entity-side lien searches. 24 An address, current or former Land title lookups and anchoring a name to a household in directory data. 5 Corporation number Exact-entity registry retrieval with no name ambiguity. 5 A domain name WHOIS and RDAP registration data plus archived versions of the site. 3 A profile URL or handle you already have Confirm-only resolution. We never search platforms to find accounts you did not give us. 3 City Narrows common-name candidates and keys obituary and directory searches. 3 Date of birth The single highest-value field at intake. An Ontario individual-debtor PPSA search is unreliable without it. 3 Email address Domain registration records and published-material searches. 2 Professional licence number Direct registrant lookup in a regulator's public register. 2 Surname alone Directory and insolvency searches that index by family name. 2 Vehicle identifier or plate Personal property registry searches for registered security. 2 Postal code Parcel identification in land registry searches. 1 Telephone number Reverse directory lookups, landlines only. 1 Counted across the 39 enabled connectors in the source registry, 2026-08-12. Step 03
We collect on the record, and politely
Each connector carries its own rate limit, its own cache lifetime, and any restriction its operator's terms impose — registries change slowly and news does not, so a corporate profile is cached for weeks while a sanctions list is refetched daily. Where an operator prohibits automated access we use its documented API or we do it by hand; we do not scrape around a prohibition.
Step 04
We decide which candidate is actually your subject
Finding fifty people with the same name is trivial; deciding which one is yours is the product. Every candidate is scored on how many independent identifiers corroborate it, and conflicts are surfaced as loudly as matches. Colour never carries that meaning alone — each level pairs a token with a glyph and a written label, because these documents get printed, photocopied, and attached to affidavits.
ConfirmedTwo or more independent sources agree, and no identifier conflicts with the subject.ProbableOne reliable source, with corroborating identifiers but no independent confirmation.PossibleA plausible match on a common identifier such as a name. Treat as a lead, not a fact.UnverifiedRecorded as found, with no attempt made or possible to corroborate it.Step 05
Every claim gets a footnote
A finding without a retrievable source and a retrieval timestamp cannot be relied on, so the report does not contain any. Where an operator permits public linking, the footnote links the record. Where it does not — a paid registry, a counter-only court file — the footnote is written so a third party could request the same record themselves.
Specimen finding
Illustration — invented subjectThe subject is recorded as a director of an Ontario corporation, appointed 14 March 2019, with an address for service in Toronto1. A writ of execution was registered against the same legal name and date of birth in August 20232.
Sources
- 1.Ontario Business RegistryCorporation profile report, corp. no. 1234567 (specimen)retrieved
Director: SMITH, ROBERT JAMES. Appointed 2019-03-14. Address for service: 118 Example St, Toronto ON.
↩ - 2.Ontario Writs of Execution SearchWrit search, Toronto enforcement office, file 23-EX-000000 (specimen)retrieved ↩
- 1.Ontario Business RegistryCorporation profile report, corp. no. 1234567 (specimen)retrieved
Step 06
We print what we could not find
Every report carries a gaps section: which sources were searched and returned nothing, which were skipped and why, which jurisdictions have no online equivalent of what you needed, and what single identifier would most likely unlock a result. Ontario's missing owner-name land index and missing civil docket search show up here constantly, because they are real and no amount of spending changes them.
Step 07
Then the clock starts on deletion
We hold personal information about people who are not our customers, so retention is a duty rather than a setting. Files are purged on a schedule from the day the case closes, and the audit trail outlives the file on purpose — we keep the record that a search happened longer than the contents of the search.
Free scan
90 days
Records report
2 years
Deep Research
7 years
Refused intake, subject data
30 days
If you are the subject
You are not our customer, and you still have rights
Most of the people in our data are not our customers. That is exactly why the access channel does not require an account.
Under PIPEDA you may ask any organisation what personal information it holds about you and require it to correct inaccuracies. We answer within 30 days. Québec residents additionally have de-indexing and cessation-of-dissemination rights under Law 25, on the same clock.
Requests go to privacy@sleuthify.ca or through the subject request form. No account, no fee, and no requirement to say why.
What we cannot do is unpublish the underlying record. A judgment on CanLII, a registry filing, a professional discipline decision — those belong to their operators and the open court principle keeps them public. What we can do is tell you what we hold, correct it, and delete our copy.