You may want to run a background check on yourself….

check yourself…

I was just told (by a realtor that was helping us look for a home before we are homeless on August 1) that realtors like her use an app to do a background check on people before meeting with them at an open house. They want to know something about who they are going to meet because its dangerous out there.

I had told her about my frustration at not even being interviewed for simple jobs that are open locally (exterminator, stock clerk at a grocery store, audio visual/alarm/home network installation, even cashier at the local Goodwill store). She could feel my frustration and had pity on me. She told me that when she put my phone number into this app on her phone it showed her “6 Possible Criminal/Infraction Records” including one for “THEFT BY TAKING-AUTO” – all based solely on my cell phone number (the cell number is the only info she entered into the app).

The only thing onscreen that implied that these records MIGHT not belong to me was smaller text to the right of each arrest record that showed a positive match on first name, last name, middle initial, state and “proximity”. It did not show a match on birth date or address. But this info is in smaller text and the matches have green checks next to each while the non-matched data is simply blank – thus emphasizing the matched data over the unmatched data.

She was concerned that this may be why I am not being interviewed. Well, now I am concerned about that too. I have read online that some employers don’t do a background check until after they make an offer. Others may do a background check before they interview you.

I looked into the company and found that is also sells this info to other companies that may use that data for screening job applicants. If ATS systems are seeing this crap, my application may be being tossed for a felony arrest that never happened before anyone even sees my experience or skills.

Why would an employer spend valuable time to research if a probable felony arrest was correct when they have dozens or hundreds of other applicants with no hint of a felony arrest in their background checks? They wouldn’t. And if an ATS system is involved, the ATS system (or the person doing the background check) would just toss aside any applicant that has such crap pop up and move on to those that don’t.

I will go to the sheriff’s office where the arrests took place on Monday to see if I can get anything from them indicating that those arrest records (if they even exist) are NOT referring to me. I doubt they will give me anything like that, but I’ve got to give it a shot.

Then I will talk to those local companies that didn’t even call me for an interview and see if any of them made that decision based on a background check that showed a possible felony. If so, I need to find out who their background check company is and see if it can be traced back to the company that owns and supplies the info for that realtor app.

If the trail leads back to them…..well…..somebody is about to be very unhappy.

While I would suggest doing a background check on yourself, you can’t check all sources of background info out there. But still be vigilant. Information privacy and security for the consumer is dead in the U.S..