2023 New York Laws › GBS - General Business › Article 7 - Private Investigators, Bail Enforcement Agents and Watch, Guard and Patrol Agencies › 70 - Private Investigator License.

§  70.  Private investigator license. 1. The department of state shall
  have the power to issue licenses to private  investigators.  Nothing  in
  this  article  shall  prevent  a private investigator licensed hereunder
  from performing the services of a watch, guard or patrol agency or  bail
  enforcement  agent  as defined herein; however, a watch, guard or patrol
  agency or bail enforcement agent may  not  perform  the  services  of  a
  private investigator as defined herein.
2. No person, firm, company, partnership, limited liability company or
  corporation  shall  engage  in  the  business of private investigator or
  advertise his, their or its business to be that of private  investigator
  notwithstanding  the  name  or  title  used in describing such agency or
  notwithstanding the fact that other functions and services may  also  be
  performed  for  fee,  hire or reward, without having first obtained from
  the department of state a license so to do, as hereinafter provided, for
  each bureau, agency, sub-agency, office and branch office to  be  owned,
  conducted,   managed  or  maintained  by  such  person,  firm,  company,
  partnership, limited liability company or corporation for the conduct of
  such business.
3. No person, firm, company, partnership, limited liability company or
  corporation shall engage in the business of furnishing or supplying  for
  fee,  hire or any consideration or reward information as to the personal
  character or activities of any person, firm,  company,  or  corporation,
  society  or association, or any person or group of persons, or as to the
  character or kind of the business and occupation of  any  person,  firm,
  company or corporation, or own or conduct or maintain a bureau or agency
  for the above mentioned purposes, except exclusively as to the financial
  rating, standing, and credit responsibility of persons, firms, companies
  or   corporations,   or   as   to  the  personal  habits  and  financial
  responsibility  of  applicants  for  insurance,   indemnity   bonds   or
  commercial credit or of claimants under insurance policies, provided the
  business  so  exempted does not embrace other activities as described in
  section seventy-one of this article, or except where such information is
  furnished or supplied  by  persons  licensed  under  the  provisions  of
  section  twenty-four-a  or  subdivision  three-b of section fifty of the
  workers'  compensation  law  or  representing  employers  or  groups  of
  employers  insured  under  the  workers'  compensation  law in the state
  insurance fund, without having first obtained  from  the  department  of
  state, as hereafter provided, a license so to do as private investigator
  for each such bureau or agency and for each and every sub-agency, office
  and  branch office to be owned, conducted, managed or maintained by such
  persons, firm, limited liability company, partnership or corporation for
  the conduct of such business. Nothing contained in this section shall be
  deemed to include the business of adjusters for insurance companies, nor
  public adjusters licensed by the superintendent  of  financial  services
  under the insurance law of this state.
4.  Any person, firm, company, partnership or corporation who violates
  any provision of this section shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor.