Many people who have undergone background checks or are about to go through one, often think that the people conducting the check would see everything about their lives. Most of these people also are afraid that even the most private part of their live would come under scrutiny. What is not commonly known is that there are limitations to what are found on a background check.
Since background checking became common place in the recent years, most notably since the terrorist attacks on the US back in September 11, 2001, companies and the government have stepped up their security, and all other businesses and private sectors have followed. One of these measures was enabling common citizens to have access to public information for use in verification, employment, and security purposes by simply performing background checks.
Along with the ability of citizens to access these data there also have been laws put up to ensure that the most private of records are not accessible to deter identity theft, fraud and misuse of personal information. The Fair Credit Reporting Act is one such law that governs a lot of aspects in the use of the information found on background checks, for one thing is regulates what type of information becomes available to the public. There are also numerous other laws that protect specific information from prying public eyes.
Some of the more commonly known records that are not accessible to the public are medical records and juvenile records.
Medical records are strictly off limits and do not show up on background checks, this is for obvious reasons. This is part of a law that protects doctor-patient confidentiality. Although there are some medical records that are deemed public such as institutionalization records. Background checks will show if you have been admitted to a mental institution or if you had been recorded as having a mental disorder.
Juvenile records are also considered as off limits and are sealed by the courts. An agency or an inquirer would need to get a hold of a warrant and permission from a judge in order to view a person's juvenile record. So any misdemeanors or other crimes that were done as a minor would not show up on a background check. This is of course to ensure that a juvenile's crimes would not hinder an him from proper rehabilitation and future employment.
Part of the way background check laws protects our privacy is require consent from the person in question when someone wants to access specific information. Although most of the information that people look for are generally considered to be public information, some are more private like our social security, tax and credit information. For example, employers are required to submit a signed consent form before they are able to access your credit report information.
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