People make mistakes, with some being totally harmless and minor. Police often arrest people for very minor offenses as we all know, especially in recent times. People can be arrested and booked to a jail and released within an hour.

Jailbase.com and Arrests.org are websites that scrape government websites to gather jail booking photos, otherwise known as mugshots and publishes them on their website and Apps. They do this to generate advertising revenue and sell “subscription services” for background checks. Bing.com, Microsoft’s search engine chooses to index jailbase.com and arrests.org and rank these website’s pages highly in the search results for people’s names. This can be extremely harmful to those who have been arrested for any crime. It absolutely destroys their lives long after the charges have been dismissed, they paid their fines, completed probation or prison time and even had their record expunged and sealed. They are unable to move on from the event because although the mugshot is gone from the government/jail website, it continues to live on in Bing/Yahoo/AOL’s search results. 

Many of the people listed on these websites were totally innocent yet they continue to face difficulty finding and keeping a job, building friendships and relationships and living a normal life. This leads to homelessness, unemployment, and sadly suicide. Not to mention historically mugshots are racist, hurting black people and other minorities across this country.

Registries exist for extremely violent offenders with their photos available to the public in most parts of the United States. Freedom of speech, so-called sunshine laws, and public records also exist. We do not need websites like Jailbase.com and arrests.org ranking so highly in Bing.com’s results.

The website owners cannot be contacted as none of the contact forms work on the site (intentionally) and also the so called “free opt out” is a total sham as it does not work at all. This is against the law in a few states, and in Florida there is a fine of $1000 per day for not honoring a take down request. This law was signed by Governor DeSantis last year and is a major step in the right direction. We thank Governor DeSantis for his dedication to improving the lives of Americans.

These websites are committing fraud by offering things it can’t do and making claims which are false. The information is also inaccurate and in some cases totally fake.

People deserve to move on with their life and Bing, Yahoo, and Jailbase.com along with arrests.org are holding them back. We know where to find public records on government websites, not inaccurate and misleading websites like Jailbase.com and Arrests.org.

Please sign this petition to help millions of people live a productive life and move on from their pasts. Google, and Apple have removed all of Jailbase.com and arrests.org from their search engine and App Store and it is time for Bing.com to do the same.

You can also help by contacting Bing.com and reporting Jailbase.com here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/concern/bing

Contact their CDN/firewall service provider Cloudflare.com and request they refuse jailbase.com and arrests.org service by emailing press@cloudflare.com. 

This petition aims to improve millions of people’s lives in America. We will not stop until the results have been removed from Bing.