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Background Check
Background check is the process of acquiring or verifying information on an individual. While the information can include potentially anything about the individual's employment, credit, or past history, the most common usage refers to criminal records. Another type of background check is pre-employment screening and is used by businesses to verify the accuracy of applicants’ employment history, educational history, and credentials, as well as confirming the lack of criminal history, workers compensation claims, and sanctions. Other searches such as sex offender registry, credential verification, reference checks,
credit reports and Patriot Act searches are becoming increasingly common. Taking advantage of
public records availability in the United States, a number of Web based companies began purchasing U.S. public records data and selling it online, primarily to assist the general public in
locating people. Many of these sites advertise background checks and offer a 20 year history of addresses, phone numbers, marriages and divorces, employment, businesses owned and property ownership. Usually, these sites will also provide a nationwide criminal check for an added charge.
The amount of information included on a background check depends to a large degree on the sensitivity of the reason for which it is conducted. There are many legitimate reasons for individuals or organizations to perform a background check on someone they are about to enter into a relationship with, such as a nanny check, a tenant check, to make sure a love interest has a clean history, or to check a potential business partner. However, information obtained in a background check can also be misused, for example to commit identity theft. For this reason background checks, while useful and increasingly popular, remain somewhat controversial. [Source:
Wikipedia]
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