Public Data and Privacy

We exist to make information about companies more accessible, more discoverable and more usable for the public benefit.

We do this by maintaining an archive of information about companies, including their property and activities, that we collect from a variety of sources, and organizing that information so that it can be used for a broader public benefit, including increasing corporate transparency, creating an environment more reliable business, helping individuals to engage with companies on a global basis and assisting in combating the use of companies for criminal or antisocial purposes.

Most countries publish information about companies as part of the official public register. This usually includes information about the company’s ownership, along with details of certain individuals and executives associated with the company. Because business owners and executives are often (though not always) individuals, this means that much of that information will consist of personal information. This will result in personal data about people who will be on the public record, which may, in certain cases, lead to a conflict between the right to know, the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy. Specific sensitivities can be felt when, for example, directors or companies choose to submit a home address to a company’s public record. It is not always clear where the balance between these potential conflicts is established and varies from country to country. In such cases we do not act as an arbiter. Everything we publish seeks to accurately reflect the information published by the official registration bodies themselves.

Our goal is to be totally open and transparent about the source of information we collect and, whenever possible, we publish a link to the source of the data we collect.