Corrections, removals, and takedowns

Three different requests

Most messages we receive are one of three things, and they are handled differently. Say which one you are making and we can act without a round trip.

• A correction. A fact on the page is wrong, out of date, or missing. Tell us which field, what it should say, and — if you have one — a source we can check. A firm correcting its own listing can simply tell us; anyone else should point us at something public we can read.
• A removal. You want the listing gone, or you want your business excluded from the directory. A business can ask for this without giving a reason: name the listing and it comes out of the directory. This also covers a closed business, a changed address, or a listing that describes someone who is no longer there.
• An urgent takedown. The listing puts someone at risk — safety, harassment, or a similar harm. Say so in the subject line and we will treat it ahead of everything else.

What to include

• The URL of the listing or page you are asking about.
• Whether you are the business, a representative of it, or someone else.
• The specific change: the field, the current value, and the value you believe is correct.
• For anything other than a business asking about its own listing, a public source we can check.
• For an urgent request, what the risk is and how quickly you need a response.

Do not send case numbers, receipt numbers, A-numbers, or any detail about an individual's immigration situation. We do not need it, we cannot act on it, and it should not travel by email.

What happens next

A request reaches a person rather than a form, and a safety matter is handled before everything else. Everything else is worked in the order the requests arrive, and the answer goes to the address the request came from. We do not publish a fixed number of days: how long a request takes depends on the source it has to be checked against, and the address below will tell you where a request stands. Where a fact is disputed and we cannot verify either version, we take the listing out of the directory while the question is open: an unverified listing is not worth publishing.

We keep a record of what was asked for and what we did, and we will tell you the outcome. We do not remove a fact merely because someone objects to it, and we do not keep a listing merely because we believe it is accurate: for a business, the request itself is enough.

Where a correction ends up

A corrected fact is shown on the listing with the date we observed it, and the same goes for a confirmed fact a firm supplies. If a request changes our method rather than one page — a field we should not be publishing at all, for example — the change appears on the methodology page and applies to every listing.

Contact

Email directory@govtrack.io. If you would rather not use email, say so on the about page and we will arrange another route.