The Secretary of State (SoS) for most (if not all) states maintain a database of registered companies. This basic dataset is needed to lookup how a company is registered, their contact info, status, etc. Most queries have come to impose a CAPTCHA.

If you fax or mail a request for records, the SoS offices simply ignore it without even the courtesy to respond. So if you boycott Google, you’re fucked. The state makes you choose between access to “public” records, and witholding your labor and data from Google. Can’t have it both ways.

Unless you make a FOIA request, in which case you have to pay the state for the info.

This thread could be used to document the states that push this shitty practice on people.