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Background Checks

Background Checks Over Phone

Now background checks can be ordered just like a pizza.   Just order them over the phone.   According to an article in PC World,  BeenVerified has stirred up a lot of controversy by enabling users to order up to three background checks, monthly, over the IPhone.  Turnaround is a matter of seconds.

A good thing?  Some say no.  Critics claim it violates privacy.   As the application is the results of a proprietary database, the user can conduct background reports on everything from criminal records, social media links, property records, to the subject’s residential history.  Over one million background checks have been run so far on the application.

It is a handy application.  Is it for preemployment screening purposes?  I wouldn’t think so although the claim is made it is adequate for small and medium sized businesses.  As the application will return records on anyone possessing the same name, it becomes hard to week out an employer’s job candidate from the other 900 Joe Brown’s that are out there.  You can make a mistake and refuse to hire someone who really had no violations on his record.    With regard to social network information, once again there are many members with the same or similar names.  Separating one from another has to be tricky.  Finally, again in being compliant with the FCRA, to initiate preemployment background checks, it is mandated that the employer must have a signed consent form from the job applicant.

There is also the issue with Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).    With the FCRA, should you discover criminal records on a database search, you are supposed to verify with a county criminal search, or state non-database search.  These background checks return more accurate records.     For higher level preemployment screening and for more senior employment candidates, it is really necessary to conduct more complex searches, and it doesn’t appear that the IPhone application would allow for that.

This all being said, I can see where this would be handy for singles and couples looking to date.   Parents who want to know more about the parents of their child’s playmates would find this application invaluable.    As for the controversy about the invasion of one’s privacy, I always find that overblown.  These are public records, and by the very name and nature, public records are supposed to be accessible.

This issue will be interesting to watch.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.