CRONE, J.
King first contends that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting State’s Exhibit 2, which consists of four documents that Yahoo! submitted pursuant to a subpoena. The first document is a letter from paralegal Darcy Riedell, which reads in pertinent part:
Enclosed is the following information regarding the user account specified in the Subpoena: 1) the User Profile, as produced by the Yahoo! Account Management Tool; and 2) the dates, times and Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses for log-in attempts for the Yahoo! account specified in the Subpoena to the extent available from our system for the specified date range. An affidavit authenticating these records also is enclosed.
….
Because Yahoo! offers many of its user services for free, it may not require or verify user information.
State’s Ex. 2 (emphasis added).
The second document is Riedell’s affidavit, which reads in pertinent part:
1. I am a Custodian of Records for Yahoo! Inc. (“Yahoo!”), located in Sunnyvale, California. I am authorized to submit this affidavit on behalf of Yahoo! I make this affidavit pursuant to the Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 902 (11) and in response to a Subpoena dated October 23, 2007. I have personal knowledge of the following facts, except as noted, and could testify competently thereto if called as a witness.
2. Attached hereto are true and correct copies of data pertaining to the Yahoo! subscriber identified in the Subpoena. Yahoo! servers record this data automatically at the time, or reasonably soon after, it is entered or transmitted, and this data is kept in the course of this regularly conducted activity and was made by regularly conducted activity as a regular practice. Yahoo! provides most of its services to its subscribers free of charge. As such, Yahoo! does not collect billing information or verified personal information from the majority of our users.
Id. (emphasis added).
The third document is entitled “Yahoo! Account Management Tool” and reads in pertinent part:
Login Name: king556466
Properties Used: Mail
Personals
Photos
Yahoo Mail Name: [email protected]
(Alternate) Email address: [email protected]
Registration IP address: 207.250.21.33
Account Created (reg): Tue Feb 28 18:34:52 2006 GMT
Other Identities: king556466 (Yahoo! Mail)
Full Name Mr Andrew King
Address1:
Address2:
City: Indianapolis
State, territory or province: IN
Country: United States
Zip/Postal Code: 46201
Id. The fourth document is entitled “Yahoo! Login Tracker” and indicates that the user of account king556466 logged in using IP address 207.67.99.130 on October 17 and 24, 2007.
At trial, both parties agreed that State’s Exhibit 2 contains hearsay, which is “a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.” Ind. Evidence Rule 801(c). [Footnote omitted.] . . . The State asserted that State’s Exhibit 2 was admissible pursuant to Indiana Evidence Rule 803, which reads in pertinent part,
The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule, even though the declarant is available as a witness.
….
(6) Records of Regularly Conducted Business Activity. A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony or affidavit of the custodian or other qualified witness, unless the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate a lack of trustworthiness.
King objected, contending that the documents lacked trustworthiness. The trial court overruled the objection and admitted State’s Exhibit 2.
. . . No Indiana cases are directly on point, but we find persuasive federal cases cited by King regarding the admissibility of guest registration cards. [Footnote omitted.] In U.S. v. McIntyre, 997 F.2d 687 (10th Cir. 1993), cert. denied (1994), the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the district court’s admission of two motel registration cards that the prosecution introduced to support its theory that one of the appellant’s co-conspirators traveled to California to purchase cocaine. As a threshold matter, the court noted that “[t]he government offered these documents for the truth of the matter asserted, namely that Vickie Hogg checked into the two motels on the dates recorded and paid for the rooms. Accordingly, they are hearsay.” . . . .
. . . We find the analysis instructive and quote from it at length:
The owner of the Magic Carpet Motel testified that the log was kept in the regular course of business. However, the owner also testified that an employee of the motel filled in the log based on information received from the guest. Because the motel employee relied on information received from the guest in compiling the log, the record poses a hearsay problem.
The essential component of the business records exception is that each actor in the chain of information is under a business duty or compulsion to provide accurate information. See 2 McCormick on Evidence, § 290 at 274 (John William Strong, ed., 4th ed. 1992) (stating that the underlying theory of the business records exception is “a practice and environment encouraging the making of accurate records. If any person in the process is not acting in the regular course of business, then an essential link in the trustworthiness chain fails, just as it does when the person feeding the information does not have firsthand knowledge.”)[.]
In order for the business records exception to apply, Rule 803(6) requires “an informant with knowledge acting in the course of the regularly conducted activity.” Fed. R. Evid. 803(6), Advisory Committee Notes on 1972 Proposed Rules. The notes of the Advisory Committee on the 1972 Proposed Rules state:
Sources of information presented no substantial problem with ordinary business records. All participants, including the observer or participant furnishing the information to be recorded, were acting routinely, under a duty of accuracy, with employer reliance on the result, or in short “in the regular course of business.” If, however, the supplier of the information does not act in the regular course, an essential link is broken; the assurance of accuracy does not extend to the information itself, and the fact that it may be recorded with scrupulous accuracy is of no avail. An illustration is the police report incorporating information obtained from a bystander: the officer qualifies as acting in the regular course but the informant does not. The leading case, Johnson v. Lutz, 253 N.Y. 124, 170 N.E. 517 (1930), held that a report thus prepared was inadmissible. Most of the authorities have agreed with the decision.
In the instant case, the motel clerk relied on the guest, who was not under a business duty or compulsion, to provide the information that went into the document. Therefore, the document presents hearsay problems.
However, the fact that the name on the registration was obtained from an actor not under a business compulsion does not necessarily mean the business records exception is inapplicable. If the business entity has adequate verification or other assurance of accuracy of the information provided by the outside person, the exception may still apply. Some courts have required that the business employee recording the information be “able in some way to verify the information provided-for example, by examining a credit card, driver’s license, or other form of identification.” United States v. Lieberman, 637 F.2d 95, 101 (2d Cir. 1980); see United States v. Zapata, 871 F.2d 616, 625 (7th Cir. 1989);[6] 2 McCormick on Evidence § 290 at 275. We do not feel that in every case there must be direct testimony that an employee actually verified the information, nor is it necessary that there be an express policy that identification be checked. In some cases, the interests of the business may be such that there exists a sufficient self-interest in the accuracy of the log that we can find its contents to be trustworthy. See FDIC v. Staudinger, 797 F.2d 908, 910 (10th Cir. 1986) (“[a] foundation for admissibility may at times be predicated on judicial notice of the nature of the business and the nature of the records as observed by the court.”) (quoting Weinstein’s Evidence ¶ 803(6)[02] at 803-179 to -181 (1985)); Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co. v. Goldman ( In re Ollag Constr. Equip. Corp.), 665 F.2d 43, 46 (2d Cir. 1981) (finding information on financial statements provided to a bank in the regular course of the bank’s business to be sufficiently trustworthy to qualify as business records, in part because providing of false information under such circumstances is subject to criminal sanctions; the court contrasted such information to that provided by hotel guests, where there is no similar indicia of reliability). However, in the instant case we do not find adequate guarantees of trustworthiness in the financial self-interests of the motel. Moreover, there was no evidence either that the identity of the individual claiming to be Vickie Hogg was actually checked or that there was a policy to do so. Nor do we find it persuasive that a motel employee transcribed the information rather than the guest.FN12
FN12 The courts in Lieberman, 637 F.2d at 100-101, and Zapata, 871 F.2d at 625, rejected the notion that the admissibility of a document under the business records exception of Fed. R. Evid. 803(6) was controlled by whether the recording person was a guest or employee of the hotel. Indeed, although we feel that this is one factor to consider in determining the trustworthiness of the source or method of preparation, it is not determinative. Whether the guest tells the clerk his name and address and the clerk then writes it down or whether the guest writes the information down, the guest is still the source of the information. Accordingly, an examination of the source, method, and circumstances of preparation is necessary regardless of who transcribes the information.
Id. at 699-700.
The court concluded that “[a]lthough the admission of the Magic Carpet log may have been erroneous, we nevertheless are not convinced that it amounted to plain error.” Id. at 701.
. . . .
In this case, both the cover letter and the affidavit in State’s Exhibit 2 plainly state that Yahoo! generally does not collect or verify personal information from its users. More to the point, they do not state that Yahoo! verified the personal information obtained from the person who created user account king556466. King observes that Detective Odier himself created a fictitious Yahoo! account and acknowledged that Yahoo! “doesn’t require you to give any identification when you’re creating an account[.]” Tr. at 163-64. In light of these considerations, we conclude that “the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation [of State’s Exhibit 2] indicate a lack of trustworthiness” and that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the exhibit pursuant to Indiana Evidence Rule 803(6).
BRADFORD, J., and BROWN, J., concur.