How to get public information about a private company, or, my latest FOIA adventure

I know what you're thinking. Public information pertains to, well, um, public entities. That is true, but there are ways to get public information from a private company in some cases too. I'm not talking about an inside source sneaking you secret documents. I am talking about sending an email (or letter via snail mail) and publicly requesting information.

I am working on a story about a private organization (which I won't name here because the story is not yet complete) and was looking for information pertaining to their licensing records, which are public. Within four business days, the records I requested were sitting in my Inbox.

The lesson here? If any private company has any kind of licensing through the state, that information is likely public. Be aware that the licensing information may not contain what you are looking for, but know that you have access to it.

Also, make sure you aren't fooled. It isn't as simple as you trying to file a request under FOIA and someone in the company saying "Sorry, can't use FOIA with us. We're private."

*click ... dialtone*

Then you give up and move on, right?

Not so fast.

If their licensing is not through the state then find out how much funding the company receives from the state or if the state is involved in any aspect of their operations. If the state plays a large part in their business operations in one way or another, there may be more public information available to you than you know about.

Stay tuned for more FOIA trials and tribulations and remember, if you have stories to share, questions or comments, email me at asanders@nhregister.com.

Crash course on FOI

Do you want to learn more about investigative reporting, story tips and freedom of information but you don't feel like scrolling through this blog or my power point? No worries, tune in tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 2 p.m.) to watch me explain why FOI is important and show you how much dirt you can dig up on the Internet.

If you want to volunteer, I'll see how much information is available about you on the Internet. Don't worry, I won't peak at your Amazon.com wish list.

If you have any questions or comments after the presentation, feel free to contact me at asanders@nhregister.com.

 Join the conversation!

or watch here:

How to get the real story: Freedom of Information facts and tips

Freedom of Information

View more presentations from asanders88.

Freedom of Information in the news

● The State Supreme court will look at this case in December:
Whether a public entity can create and Maintain trade secrets. (Whether customer lists at the University of Connecticut are exempt from disclosure under the trade secrets exemption to FOIA.)

Find out more

Security Exchange Commission documents

 Do you want all of the information or dirt you can find on a company? Look no further than SEC docs.




● 10 K: annual reports
- Description of business, income table, revenue, profits, balance sheet (cash and debt), litigation, proprieties, employees, risk factors, legal proceedings

● 10 Q: quarterly reports.
- Updates on litigation (only important suits listed)

● 8K: special events.
- Resignation of directors, key officers, earnings release, acquisition or sale of business, other key financial news

● DEF-14A: Shareholder Proxy.
- Biographies on board members and corporate officers, executive/ director compensation, key shareholders, related party transactions (conflicts of interest).
- Tip:To find pay, search "summary compensation table." And "non-equity compensation" is code for bonus.

● S-1: Initial public offering.
- When a company is selling stock for the first time. A layout of a company's financials and background.

● Form D: Stock sale by a private firm.
-Private companies report efforts to raise money. Also gives a list of key officers and directors. Useful for: Finding out about new/ hot start-ups.

● Investor Forms:
- 13-F: Filed when mutual funds and large investors discuss holdings.
- 13-D: When someone is holding more than 5 percent of an organization.

Your Freedom of Information resources

  Looking for information but you aren't finding this blog helpful or you don't know where to start your search? Here are some other places to look:

● Investigative Reporters and Editors - FOI tips: Find nuances in laws, legislation-changing stories and FOI tips and tricks here.

● Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: A nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free legal help to reporters and news organizations.

● U.S. Department of Justice: A federal and criminal enforcement agency - with records.

● Muckrock.com: An open government tool powered by state and federal Freedom of Information laws. Useful for: A lack of time, energy and patience. The site will explain to an organization what you are looking for, submit a request to a company, keeps track of it and follows up on it.

● Office of Government Information Services: Get help writing and narrowing down FOI requests

● Power Reporting: Resources and training for journalists. Useful for: When you are having trouble with that pesky computer assisted reporting 

● NICAR database library: An extensive list of databases that (unfortunately) cost a fee to purchase but they offer a reduced fee on some data sets and it may be worth your while.

● Suffolk Media Law: A Suffolk University student group that advocates for Freedom of Information, and shares stories about FOI issues and how to change them.

● New England Newspaper and Press Association: News about news, and how the news media is changing and growing

- OTHER RESOURCES (This list will grow, I assure you)

● The Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Learn about outbreaks, toxins and epidemics that could be affecting your community

● Military record information: You may not get all of the information you want, but you may find something you need.

Government reporting: follow the money

Everything you need or want to know about a candidate or government official and sites that will help you hold government accountable.

LABOR RELATED SEARCHES
● U.S. Department of Labor: Find annual labor reports.
● Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act notices: Filed with the state
● Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Find out about accidents, incidents or health/ safety investigations at an organization on their Website or by request.
● Resource: For people who used to work at a company, organization, municipality, etc., call the union chief.
● Resource: Call the Comptroller's office for state employee information

FINANCIAL INFORMATION
● Google.com/finance and finance.yahoo.com

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
● UsaSpending.gov: Find out how much government contracts to the state have gone up over time.
● Securities and Exchange Commission: Search for company filings by company, name, date, key words, exact phrase. Use * for a wildcard search and use NEAR2 to find close words
● J3 Information Services Group: Get an inside look at insider trading.
● Fedstats: Government statistics, simply put.
● FirstGov: A portal to federal and local governments'
● USAspending: Search and download federal contracts, grants, etc.
● Transitional Records Access Clearinghouse - also known as TRAC: Find out more about federal enforcement, staffing and spending. Useful for: Immigration information and Federal justice issues
● Federal Audit Clearinghouse: Audits government organizations. Useful for: Finding bad reviews of an organization or agency
● Government Accountability Office: See use directly above.
● Inspectors General reports: Find critical reports or agencies.In their words, they detect and prevent fraud, waste, abuse, and violations of law and to promote economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the operations of the Federal Government.

INVESTIGATING POLITICIANS
● Legistorm.com: Find salaries, travel, if a family member works for same company. Useful for: Seeing if someone is supporting odd legislation and also getting wined and dined by the same organization.
● Opensecrets.org: Keep track of federal candidates
● Followthemoney.com: Keep track of state candidates
● Maplight.org: Learn more about cash, votes and campaign contributions
● Federal Elections Commission: Get campaign finance reports, daily FEC action, etc.

Searching for information on a person

Looking to get more information on someone? It is most likely on the Internet, even if that person doesn't know it. You can even see peoples' Amazon wish lists and Netflix requests if you really want to. I don't know if you do.

● Zoominfo: Builds biographies for people from information found on the Web. Useful for: Checking out someone's business ties or history

● Zabasearch: Find out where a person has lived or worked throughout his or her life. You can search with a name or phone number.

● BRB Publications: A public records search engine where you can search by state. Useful for: Vital records, background records, criminal search, etc.

● Whitepages: A phone directory where you can search by name or number. Useful for: Looking up someone's neighbors and calling them to find out more about a story/ person.

● Pipl: Search here to find addresses, business connections, Facebook, MySpace, you name it.

● 123people: More of the same - addresses, business connections, etc.
● Birth dates: Find full birth dates. Useful for: Making sure the same John Smith who was arrested is the same John Smith who ran for mayor last year.

- SOCIAL MEDIA SEARCH 

● Social Mention: Realtime social media search and analysis. Useful for: Finding video, blogposts, photo, news stories,Twitter and Facebook mentions about anyone - in realtime.

● Whostalkin: Pronounced 'who is talking,' not 'who is stalking.' Useful for: Stalking, er, finding out who is talking about what on social media networks.
● Same Point: Social media for businesses
● Ice Rocket: Search Twitter, Facebook., blogs, images and big buzz
● Peek You: Find people and connect with them wherever they are in the deep Web
●  National Sex Offender Registry: Where to find sex offenders in the towns you report on or live in. Useful for: Finding out if a sex offender lives next door.
● Resource - County Voter Lists: Will let you see the political side of someone.
● Reporter's Desktop by Duff Wilson of the New York Times: Search for people. Don't know how? This will teach you. Duff takes you through all the necessary steps of finding John Doe.

- SOCIAL MEDIA YOU KNOW AND LOVE 

● Facebook: You know how to find people. Useful for: Finding peoples' friends to see if they will talk to you. Need someone's real name but that person identifies himself by his nickname and middle name? Copy their image location and paste it into Google images. See if you find a photo that matches and try to get a name from that.
● Twitter: Cover events live, help police put out photos of suspects, All Points Bulletins, etc. Use the advanced search function to look for an incident happening near to and see what people are saying about it.
● LinkedIn: Can find former employees, reasons for or dates when someone departed a company. The “Insightful Stats” shows workers demographics such as years of employment. Useful for: Finding out what's really going on in a company, reaching out to disgruntled employees.
● MySpace: Not just for kids anymore. Useful for: Finding existing evidence for sexual abuse stories. Some sex offenders use MySpace to lure kids in. There is a big military presence, music scene presence and Hispanic presence on MySpace as well, more than on Facebook.

Searching the deep, dark and dead Web

Google doesn't give you nearly as much information as you would like to think it does.

- SEARCH THE DEEP WEB

● Google offers less than half of the information available on the Web. Use at least three search engines.

● Any website you have to type wavy letters into, Google can’t find easily.

● Advanced Google Search: search a domain (.gov) or a file type (excel or spread sheets)

● Twingine.no (side by side results), Yahoo.com, Alltheweb.com (gives you advanced options), Complete Planet, Internet Public Library

 -  SEARCH THE DEAD WEB
●  Search engine cache (Google, Bing): pulls up the last live website
● Wayback Machine: an internet archive where you can see websites as they used to exist, frozen in the past. Useful for: Seeing if an official went back on a statement, etc.
● Cybercemetary: Former sites and information about defunct government agencies

 -  SEARCH A DOMAIN

●  Allwhois.com: Search for a domain of a website, find out who owns it and that person's contact information Useful for: Finding out who is running a smear site 
● Yahoo site explorer: Explore every possible link - whether it is live or not - that Yahoo.com has documented. Useful for: Finding press releases that are online but haven’t gone live yet. If that is the case, check it out before you write it.
● Quarkbase: It describes itself the best - "See people, traffic data, similar sites, social comments, description, social popularity and much more about websites."