Will they know I traced them? What the person being traced is told, what they can find out, and when they will know

The short answer

• We do not contact the person being traced, except on the reconnection service.
• We do not tell them who instructed us, or that anyone did.
• The address is released to you alone, on your tracking page, by email and as a PDF report.
• They find out when you act: a letter, a claim form, a visit from a process server. What they learn then is what you choose to tell them.

Why we do not contact them

Most lawful reasons for a trace are reasons the person would rather not know about in advance. A debtor who is warned that a creditor has found them has time to move again. A defendant who is tipped off before service has time to make service difficult. A former tenant who hears a landlord is looking may stop answering the phone they were answering. Contact would defeat the purpose you declared, so there is none.

It is also not needed. The trace works from more than 150 sources, registers and records, cross-referenced and verified by a private investigator. Nobody knocks on a door or rings a number to confirm an address, and the person has no way of knowing a trace has run.

What the person could find out if they asked

Tracing someone means processing their personal data, and UK GDPR gives them rights over it. We respect those rights, and we are honest about what they mean for you:

• They can ask us what we hold about them. Anyone can make a subject access request to any organisation they think holds their data, and we answer within the time the law allows. The law also protects information that identifies other people, so a request does not simply hand over the identity of the person who instructed us. We assess each request on its facts.
• The data does not sit around. What we hold about the person traced is deleted 12 months after the case closes. The record of your instruction, meaning who instructed us, the purpose and what was delivered, is kept for six years so that we can answer complaints and legal claims, as the privacy notice sets out.
• In practice they ask after your letter arrives, not before. A person has to suspect a trace to ask about one, and the thing that makes them suspect it is hearing from you.

We cannot promise that a person will never learn you were looking for them. Your own letter will tell them. What we can promise is that they will not learn it from us.

When they will find out, and how to handle it

The address you receive is for the purpose you declared, and the next step is usually a letter. Keep it to the purpose. A letter before claim says what is owed, how it is worked out and what happens next; it does not need to say how you found the address, and there is no reason to volunteer it. A claim form names you as claimant because the court requires it. A process server identifies the papers, not your investigator.

Do not call at the property. Do not pass the address to anyone else, and do not post about it. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 makes a course of conduct that amounts to harassment an offence, and turning up at someone's home over a debt is how a lawful recovery turns into a complaint against you. The address is for writing to, and for the court.

What your declaration does

Every instruction carries a recorded declaration: who you are, that the reason you have given is true and your only reason, that you have a lawful basis, and that the result stays confidential and is used for that purpose alone. We keep the declaration with the date, time and network address it was made from. A false declaration can be a criminal offence: obtaining personal data by deception is an offence under section 170 of the Data Protection Act 2018. For a creditor, a landlord, an executor or a solicitor with a genuine reason, the declaration is a ten-second step, and it is also what lets us keep the person's side of the bargain, because we can show every trace had a reason.

Confidentiality on our side

The report goes to you. On a firm account it goes to the people your firm has signed in, with the matter reference on it. We do not sell addresses, add them to any list or use them for anything but your instruction, and the terms you accept forbid you from doing so either. The person being traced is not named in any communication with anyone but you.

The reconnection exception

When the reason is personal, such as a lost relative or an old friend, there is no lawful basis for handing over someone's home address without their agreement, so we do the opposite of a discreet trace: we find the person, pass on your message, and share an address or contact details only if they say yes. They know who wants to reach them, because they have to decide. If they say no, or do not reply after two attempts over three weeks, we tell you we reached them and nothing is charged. Finding a lost relative or friend explains how it works.

When to instruct

When you have a lawful reason to know where someone is now and would rather they heard it from you, in your words, at the time you choose. A Standard trace is £150, delivered within 3 to 5 working days, and Priority is £200, delivered within 2 to 3 working days. Nothing is paid at instruction; your card is only held, and it is charged only when a private investigator has verified the address. Instruct a trace.