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Company background checks are done all the time. Sometimes
they are done because a person is considering applying for
a position with them. Other times it’s done to find
if there is or has been anyone in the company with a criminal
past. Most times with investigations like this it’s
to find out about their reputation and services and their
legal status. Whatever is your reason for wanting to perform
this or purchase this service, it must be something that is
very important to you.
There are federal laws which actually govern the use of public
records and personal information. The FCRA, Fair Credit Reporting
Act maintains the access to consumer reports. The DPPA governs
the personal driving records of people. And finally, the GLB,
Gramm/Leach/Bliley Act is the one that regulates all of the
personal information that financial institutions have access
to. And regarding school and medical records, there are strict
federal laws which prohibit tampering or releasing some of
that information.
Within those laws, company background checks are allowed.
But remember, much of what you may be searching for and possibly
paying for may be available to you for nothing. Again, there
may be restrictions on it though so when you decide what you
want to find out and which company you want to go with, they
will let you know if you are able to access it. For example,
your company wants to know if someone you are about to hire
has been arrested. That information is not allowed unless
it resulted in a conviction. The reason for that is because
many people have been wrongfully accused and arrested when
they were innocent. But if a judge and jury convicted them
of a specific crime, that is available for you to see in a
background check on a company.
Most of the information you will need when doing company
background checks is name, address, date of birth and social
security number. If one of these is missing, it is still possible
to find information but possibly not all of it. The more facts
you have about the person, the better chance that you will
have in getting accurate and an abundance of information.
Many research companies who sell this kind of data to the
public are: LexisNexis, Accuring and Westlaw. You can get
some info from all of these but one company, AutoTrackXP has
been known to give consumers the most updated facts. But know
what you are getting into. If you want to use these companies
online, be aware that only about 30% of all the information
about someone is online. So sometimes it’s better to
call directly and ask how you can retrieve more details and
more current info on someone or on a specific company.
Doing company background checks is a good thing. It keeps
companies and individuals honest. And it allows the consumer
to feel somewhat protected. So whether you are looking into
starting a job with a particular company or if you’re
a business wanting to hire someone, using these tools that
are available for you is a very smart thing to do.
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