You have no privacy
Back in 2001, Scott McNealy, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, roused the media with a zinger delivered at a new product introduction. “You have zero privacy anyway,” McNealy told a group of reporters and analysts, “Get over it.”
That may not have been exactly true then, but now an Iowa University professor, Mark Andrejevic, says that “the data trail left by technology users allows public and private monitoring agencies to track users’ locations, preferences and life events for purposes including consumer marketing, targeting groups of voters for campaigns, background checks and government surveillance.”
Andrejevic’s recently released book is titled iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era. He’s concerned about two things.
His big worry is that technology is advancing much faster than privacy laws. There’s probably not much any of us can do about that. The history of technology is that it runs far out in front of the laws and regulations that ultimately develop to deal with it.
His other worry is that the technologies allow people to become “do-it-yourself private investigators.” He’s right and wrong about that.
On one hand, people everywhere are using new technologies to check each other out. Dating couples Google each other to see what can be found. Job applicants research companies and companies head to MySpace and Facebook to check out applicants.
Where Andrejevic is wrong is the idea that there are no rules and no controls. If you use background checks as part of your hiring or tenant selection process you know he’s wrong. There […]
Government increases background checks at ports
Delaware Online reports on a major security effort involving port workers with the headline: “Port is first in U.S. to get new ID cards.” Here’s the lead.
After months of delays and nearly $100 million spent, a nationwide effort to issue standardized, high-security ID cards to more than a million longshoreman, dock workers, truckers and port workers kicks off at the Port of Wilmington today.
The story goes on to describe how port workers in Wilmington DE will be the first to undergo background checks and receive special “smart IDs” to make the ports and the US a safer place. The program was designed right after the September 11, 2001 attacks, but is only now being implemented.
Five thousand port workers in Wilmington are the first of approximately a million port workers around the country who will have their backgrounds checked out as the program rolls out to other ports over the next few months. Workers won’t be able to get one of the new ID cards if they are illegal immigrants, have links to terrorism or terrorist organizations, if they’ve committed a felony or if they’ve made bomb threats.
In addition to the obvious security outcomes, this is good for port-related businesses in other ways. The background checks are sure to weed out some people with criminal pasts who might turn to theft or violence.
Background check backlash
More and more businesses, government agencies and not-for-profits are using background checks every day. Most people are fine with that, but some people don’t want to be the ones that get checked.
Some NASA workers even tried to get a judge to issue an order saying that the government couldn’t ask them certain questions on a required background check. They objected to the provisions of regulation HSPD-12 which calls for smart ID cards to be issued to government employees and contractors.
The regulation calls for a federal background check and the background check includes a question about whether the employee has taken drugs. Several employees didn’t like that.
The judge who ruled on the case said, in effect, “too bad.” The employees have until October 27 to undergo the check and get the smart ID card or they face termination.
On a less serious note, we have the dog walkers of Austin. This is a group of people who have volunteered to work at the Austin animal shelter and help out by walking dogs.
The City of Austin requires people who aspire to this lofty position to undergo a simple background check. The dog walkers don’t seem to object to being checked out. What they don’t like is giving their Social Security numbers to the city because they’re not sure the city will keep them secure.
You can pretty much bet that as the trend of increasing background checks continues we’ll see more and more incidents like these.
Lying more and enjoying it less
If you think that more people are lying on their resumes and employment applications you’ve got support from an expert.
Jude M. Werra runs an executive search firm based in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Business Week reports that for a quarter century, Mr. Werra has been tracking the “executive résumé fraud, credentials inflation, and the misrepresentation of executive educational credentials” on the resumes that he receives.
The result is Werra’s “Liar’s Index.” The latest version covers resumes received in the first half of 2007 and, guess what? It’s up a full five percentage points from the index for the last half of 2006. Sixteen percent of the resumes Werra received had a falsehood of some kind.
Personally, I’ve never understood why someone would risk an entire relationship by lying about something as easy to check as an educational record. But they do, and so you should check the facts on resumes and applications.
Don’t count on your background checks doing the work for you, either. A background check is great for turning up a criminal past that an applicant has “forgotten” to tell you about. You can use a pre-employment credit check, though, to compare the employment dates there with the employment dates given on the resume.
A criminal background check and, if appropriate, a driving records check, can tell you about important things your applicant may have left out of the information he or she gave you. But you will have to verify claims on a resume, starting with the educational credentials which are easiest […]
Follow the rules
Up in Boston, Harvard School System Superintendent Thomas Jefferson has escaped one kind of trouble just in time to land in another kind. When the Worcester district attorney’s office announced that it wouldn’t pursue a criminal case on alleged illegal payments, Johnson must have breathed a sigh of relief.
Now he’s in trouble in a different way. Here’s a quote from the Boston Globe about the situation and how a background check plays into it.
A Harvard parent, Robert Harrah, said he has filed a complaint with the state’s Criminal History Systems Board, alleging that Jefferson discussed his criminal record with another parent, in violation of Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, rules. Harrah said he complained that Jefferson discussed his record, which includes arrests in 1974 and 1981 that led to fines, during a conversation at a middle school dance last November.
The School Department had conducted a background check on Harrah last year before he was allowed to chaperone a class field trip, he said.
The message to people who have access to confidential records and do background checks is twofold. Follow the rules. And make sure confidential things stay that way.
Make sure you know the rules that you should follow when you conduct a background check. Take special care to get the permissions you need in writing. Make sure the people whose background you’re checking understand what you’re doing and why.
And keep confidential things confidential. In the old, paper-only days, that was easier. You bought a file cabinet with a […]
Even a background check won’t save you
“For anyone who is dating and in a serious relationship, I strongly recommend doing a background check on your significant other. This could save you much pain and heartache.”
That’s from a letter to the editor of the Tuscaloosa News headlined, “Before dating, check background.” Here’s the story.
The writer of the letter met a woman he thought was “drop dead gorgeous.” He doesn’t tell us how or where. They went out on a date and he caught her stuffing her purse with silverware and the tip money he’d left on the table.
Evidently this was no big deal for him, because he kept dating her. The last straw came when he caught her stealing the tires from his car.
So now our friend recommends background checks for everyone you date. I recommend common sense instead.
Background checks are great. They can help you do your due diligence in hiring and reduce the risks of problem hires. They can help you improve the quality of your tenants. But even background checks won’t save you if you shut your brain off.
You’ve got to pay attention to all the signs, whether you do a background check or not. You’ve got to exercise some common sense.
Our friend who recommends background checks for dates caught his date stealing silverware at a restaurant. Then he went out with her at least two more times and acts surprised that she stole from him.
The best background check is only one part of the hiring or tenant screening process. Use it wisely, […]