01 · Authority contextPilot first
Jurisdiction and agency
The source-defined geographic or administrative authority and the organization publishing the evidence.
- Jurisdiction label
- Agency or publisher
- Registry or directory
Public records & directories
Public records with jurisdiction and lineage intact.
Turn eligible public agency, registry, filing, and directory pages into records that preserve publisher, jurisdiction, source identity, document evidence, observation time, and revision state.
Public-record model
A record is more than the name found on a page.
Keep authority, document, entity reference, event, and revision separate so downstream users can see what was published and what remains uncertain.
02 · Source objectPilot first
Public record
The registry entry, notice, license entry, filing index, directory listing, or another agreed public object.
- Record type
- Source record ID
- Status text as published
03 · Reference objectPilot first
Entity reference
A person, organization, place, or asset label appearing in the record, without asserting verified identity.
- Displayed name
- Source identifiers
- Match state and cues
04 · Change objectPilot first
Filing or event
A source-published registration, amendment, notice, renewal, revocation, or other named event.
- Event label
- Effective or filed time
- Related record IDs
05 · Evidence objectPilot first
Public document
A document, file, or published page retained separately from facts extracted from its contents.
- Document title and type
- Publication metadata
- Source link or checksum
06 · Evidence stateRetained
Revision
A corrected, amended, replaced, or newly observed source state linked to prior evidence; it is not silently treated as an identity or legal-status determination.
Capability boundary
Begin with the exact source, jurisdiction, record type, and purpose.
Public-record programs are source-specific. A representative pilot confirms access, data shape, document behavior, reuse constraints, and the states that must survive delivery.
Source or familyEingabeRecordStaat
Dossier schema
Make authority and evidence first-class fields.
A useful record says who published it, under which jurisdiction, what source object was observed, when it was seen, and whether newer evidence exists.
Jurisdiction and publisher
- jurisdiction
- Source-defined geographic or administrative context.
- agency_name
- Public body or directory publisher.
- record_family
- Registry, filing, notice, license, or directory type.
Source object
- source_record_id
- Identifier shown by the source, when present.
- record_status_text
- Status retained as published, without legal interpretation.
- entity_reference
- Name or label appearing in the record.
Publication and event
- document_type
- Source-described document or page type.
- published_or_filed_at
- Time shown by the source, where available.
- event_type
- Source label or agreed derived change state.
Observation and lineage
- source_url
- Public page associated with the evidence.
- observed_at
- When collection produced the record.
- revision_of
- Prior record or document state, when known.
{
"record_id": "pub_001",
"authority": {
"jurisdiction": "Example region",
"agency_name": "Example agency",
"record_family": "registration_notice"
},
"source_record": {
"source_id": "DEMO-42",
"entity_reference": "Example organization",
"status_text": "Published"
},
"document": {
"document_type": "notice",
"revision_of": "pub_000"
},
"source_url": "https://agency.example/records/42",
"observed_at": "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ",
"collection_state": "observed",
"schema_version": "public-record.v1"
}Identity and relationships
Preserve the source reference without declaring who it is.
Names, addresses, and identifiers can be incomplete, reused, changed, or jurisdiction-specific. Matching evidence must remain inspectable and uncertainty visible.
- 01
Authority key
Jurisdiction + agency
Defines the publishing context. - 02
Source reference
Record ID + displayed name
Retained exactly as observed. - 03
Match state
Unmatched / candidate / review
Conflict is never hidden. - 04
Canonical key
Only when contracted
Assigned under a versioned rule.
Freshness and revisions
Keep publication time separate from observation time.
An old record observed today, a newly amended document, and a page no longer available are different states. The delivery should preserve each distinction.
- Published or filedpublished_at
The date or time displayed by the source.
- Observedobserved_at
When collection produced the source observation.
- Delivereddelivered_at
When the record entered the customer channel.
- Changedfirst_seen · last_seen · revision_at
When evidence entered, left, or changed in the tracked history.
Quality and missingness
Quality checks the contract—not the legal truth of the record.
We can test structure, field presence, source lineage, and change states. We do not certify identity, completeness of a jurisdiction, or the legal meaning of published evidence.
Contracted evidence present
Authority, record fields, source URL, observed_at, and schema version passed checks.
New source state linked
The amendment or changed page remains connected to the earlier evidence.
Reference or lineage ambiguous
The candidate waits for the agreed review path instead of becoming a forced match.
No supported observation
Removed, restricted, failed, and source-absent remain distinct states.
Structural checks
Required keys, jurisdiction, source URL, types, timestamps, state, and schema version.
Field checks
Source identifier format, document linkage, event labels, duplicate candidates, and revision chain.
Customer acceptance
Legal meaning, identity, completeness, lawful reuse, retention, compliance review, and every consequential decision.
Operating model
Choose who owns the source-specific public-record operation.
The same dossier contract can sit behind four operating models. Source eligibility, purpose, and decision boundaries remain shared requirements.
Maximum control
Build source-specific collection on proxy infrastructure.
Your team determines source eligibility and owns discovery, extraction, jurisdiction mapping, revision logic, validation, permissions, and delivery.
VerantwortungOwner
Source, purpose, and record briefCustomer
Access infrastructureShared
Extraction and source schemaCustomer
Quality, revisions, and deliveryCustomer
Legal review and decisionsCustomer
Applications
Use public evidence without erasing its limits.
Applications share source-linked records and revision states. Customers retain responsibility for permissions, interpretation, review, and decisions.
Registry change monitoring
Track selected public record entries and route amendments, removals, or exceptions for review.
Authority · record · revisionPublic-sector research
Organize published agency and jurisdiction evidence for analysts with source context preserved.
Jurisdiction · agency · documentDirectory maintenance
Refresh eligible public business or professional directory observations without asserting legal status.
Entry · source ID · observed_atFiling and notice discovery
Surface selected public documents, metadata, and amendments for downstream human review.
Document · filing · eventPolicy and market research
Build reproducible datasets from named public sources and record families across agreed jurisdictions.
Source · record family · provenanceGovernment data operations
Maintain recurring public-web inputs for internal analysis while keeping authority and quality states visible.
Record · revision · delivery stateRepresentative pilot
Validate the authority, evidence, revision, and use boundary.
Test representative jurisdictions, ordinary records, documents, ambiguous entity references, amendments, removals, and the intended delivery path before recurring collection.
- 01
Define
Share jurisdiction, source, record family, fields, purpose, cadence, retention, and exclusions.
- 02
Sample
Include ordinary pages, documents, amendments, missing IDs, restricted paths, and removals.
- 03
Inspect
Review authority, source evidence, entity references, time semantics, revisions, and missing states.
- 04
Accept
Agree the source boundary, record schema, operating ownership, review path, and delivery contract.
Evaluation FAQ
Questions to settle before public evidence enters production.
Use these answers to distinguish public availability from identity, unrestricted reuse, completeness, and legal meaning.
What public records and directory data can WebScrapingAPI provide?
There is no dedicated public-record endpoint. Eligible public agency, registry, filing, and directory pages are source-specific and begin with a representative pilot using Scraper API, Browser API, or a managed delivery. Google Maps API can support documented business directory-like place records, but it is not an official government registry.
Which sources are in scope?
Potential scope includes eligible public government pages, agency registers, public filings, professional or business directories, and published documents. Each source is assessed for access, page families, jurisdiction, field availability, revision behavior, permitted use, volume, and delivery requirements before production.
Does public availability mean the data can be reused without restriction?
Public does not mean unrestricted reuse. Source terms, applicable law, intellectual-property rights, privacy rules, purpose limitations, retention, and redistribution requirements can still apply. Customers remain responsible for confirming that their intended use is lawful and appropriate.
Does a delivered record verify a person's or organization's identity?
No. A source record links observed public evidence to a source-defined entity reference. The data does not determine identity and is not a legal or compliance conclusion. Conflicts, similar names, missing identifiers, and uncertain matches remain explicit.
How are jurisdictions and agencies represented?
The record can preserve jurisdiction, agency or publisher, registry or directory name, record type, source URL, source identifier, publication or filing time where shown, observed_at, and schema version. Jurisdictional labels are not silently normalized into legal equivalence.
Can documents and filing history be included?
A pilot can test public document discovery, metadata, links, selected content extraction, filing events, amendments, and revision lineage. The contract distinguishes a document from a record derived from it and defines how replaced, corrected, or removed public evidence is retained.
How are record changes and removals handled?
Recurring delivery can retain successive observations, first_seen, last_seen, and source revision links. A page removal, an amended document, an unavailable source, and an entity no longer appearing in a directory remain different states rather than one deletion flag.
Can this data be used for background checks or eligibility decisions?
FCRA or similar background screening, regulated eligibility decisions, automated adverse decisions, and other high-impact uses are not standard scope. Customers must not treat a collected public record as a verified identity, complete history, risk score, or legal determination.
Who maintains source-specific extraction and quality?
Proxy customers own their collectors, parsers, validation, and maintenance. WebScrapingAPI maintains supported access products within their documented boundary. Scheduled feeds and Managed Web Data can include contracted extraction, schema maintenance, quality monitoring, revision handling, and delivery operations.
What sources and records are excluded?
Sensitive private records, credentialed systems, non-public personal data, sealed or restricted records, circumvention of access controls, applicant or consumer-report data, FCRA background screening, and data intended for regulated decisioning are not standard scope.
Public records & directories
Start with one jurisdiction and records your team can inspect.
Bring the source, record family, purpose, field, and delivery brief. We will determine whether a representative public-data pilot is appropriate.