Selling Records

Abstract

Third-party data brokers collate and synthesize governmental information, create markets of criminal record consumers, and sell criminal record data as commodity. These companies contribute to digital punishment through delivering consumer-friendly alternatives to bureaucratic governmental sources of data. These databases are populated into web search results and downloadable reports and then sold to an anxious public, made ever more anxious by creative marketing tactics. At the same time, these companies embrace the glossy, self-assured culture of tech start-ups to further convince the public that not only do they have extremely important information but also they have the best means of delivering it.