Complaint Review: S2 Verify

I am writing in regards to what I feel is a disturbing trend in hiring practices by employers...utilizing third party, on-line IT/Data companies such as "Peopleclick" and "S2Verify".  Companies including Lowe's and UPS - among others, use these services to "screen" potential employees in order to narrow the pool of qualified candidates from the huge volumes of applicants, justified during these tough economic times. 

Most (hiring) companies try and conceal this fact by having their firm's logo placed at the top of the new third party web page that displays once the applicant presses the apply now button for a position they are interested in.  This is the point that the shift to the third party website occurs, and most applicants are totally unaware what is really happening.  Some (hiring) companies tell you that you are now leaving their company website, (to cover their butts) but they just leave out the fact that you are now uploading personal information/resume to a third party gatherer.)  One has to, and should look up at the web address to verify (no pun intended) just where they are, then do a search to locate the third party "screening" company.  Read up on these folks.  It's scary.

I feel that since there are so many Americans looking for work, and in order to compete effectively within their own markets, these growing and highly competitive  data collection firms can and possibly are, engaging in screening activities to include: race, age, and even illegal background checks by storing information that they have previously paid for from yet another third party for fee local record researcher. 

This very valuable, costly and, in my opinion, illegally attained personal information can then be (potentially) traded back and forth among competing firms and/or "customers" (i.e. hiring firms).  There are currently no safeguards/laws in place, other than stating on their website's privacy policy statements that they follow all laws and belong to certain ethical organizations.  And of course, they would never disclose any personal information in a harmful manner.  I ask:  "Should we trust them?"  Employers: You should think twice.

The unemployed, have NO OTHER PROTECTIONS, other than these third party company's "word that our personal information is being handled confidentially and legally. With a little thought, one can see the blatant potential for harm here.  Should we believe that for every new client these companies "sign up", they are starting with fresh, new data?  Remember, they are competing against other similar firms.  How do they set themselves apart from their competition, other than being more able to offer an increasingly superior "accurate", "targeted" screening service?  If they can use your uploaded resume to fill in blank fields on a website automatically, do you not think that they can deduce your age, gender, race etc. (and other illegal, employer specified "screening" factors).  And SAVE it?  SHARE it?  Basically blackballing folks to the point they can NEVER find employment?  The employer is off the hook, because they have contracted with a third party......

It's going on folks, it's time to wake up.  This American is outraged, and if you are not, well you should be.  This is just one more step on that slippery road to total loss of anything private in this country.  Actually, this is a gigantic step, the final frontier in my opinion...

So, what do I feel can be done?  To start, the recent law adopted by the state of New Yorkshould be considered federally.  The legislation represents an amendment to Section 380-c and 380-g of the General Business Law and went into effect on February 1, 2009. 

Under the new legislation, companies must provide individuals subject to background checks with a copy of Article 23-A of the Corrections Law: Licensure and Employment of Persons Previously Convicted of One or More Criminal Offenses", which identifies a list of nine factors that an employer must consider before making any employment decisions on the basis of an individuals background.  Such factors include: (1) the bearing of the criminal offense on the individuals fitness for duty, (2) the time that has elapsed since the occurrence of the crime, (3) the age of the person at the time of the offense, and (4) the seriousness of the offense. 

Generally, in NY, a company must provide a copy of Article 23-A of the Corrections Law both before it requests a criminal history report from a background screening company and when it receives a background screening report reflecting a criminal history hit.    Remember, "hits" include traffic tickets and anything, errors or not, that show up in your local county courthouse.  The recently passed legislation also requires employers to post a copy of Article 23-A of the Corrections Law and related regulations conspicuously in the workplace. 

But in order to really close the loopholes for potential wrongs to good, hard-working, tax paying Americans, I offer the following:  Simply make it illegal to use a third party to gather any information for any company needing to hire employees.....period.  Companies should feel proud that so many folks want to work for them, and spend their own time and resources qualifying folks, on their own, in a legal, respectful, confidential manner.  (Maybe hire a few more HR folks...) If not hired, the applicant can then request all information be deleted immediately from the employers computers, with verifiable proof, unless he/she agrees otherwise (future realistic hiring potential within a certain time frame < 1 year). 

I dont care that they (hiring firms) are overwhelmed with huge numbers of applicants and need to qualify them in a manner that resembles factory production.  Be glad you have folks that want to work for you.  I say employers, (via their third party, 19th century "thugs") are increasingly using illegal (screening) methods to accomplish this, and if they are not, the pressures to do so are obvious.  They say they are not.  I say they are, or at least, have the incentive to do so. What controls are in place to ensure that firms are doing the right thing? 

I'm applying for a position with a company I'm interested in.  I initiated the contact, or they recruited me.  That's where the information should stay.  Fedral Law mandates certain guidelines in how this publically available information is to be handled regarding employment, and all we have now is some third party, professional IT company's "word" that the law is indeed being followed.

The gathering of my personal information by a third party in the hiring process is simply wrong, and its time to begin addressing these civil violations.  The privacy rights and respect of the individual, taxpaying, law abiding American citizen outweighs the need for companies to maximize profit via third party information firms.  PERIOD. 

Look at this scenario:  A third party, at some point, (legally performed or not), does a (paid) background check on an individual.  Whether a hit was discovered or not is irrelevant.  The third party paid for this information.  Do you not think that there is an incentive to perhaps store this information securely for future use?  Once performed and paid for, is this information not more valuable than what was previously on file.  As a for profit business, I can assure you, the incentive is there.

Considering the behaviors of companies in our country, and how they handle valuable information, the road we are heading down will most certainly result in our personal information being freely traded on Wall Street as the next hot market pool to plunder......."private employee information", and the risk/no risk fortunes that can be made.  (Some Harvard MBA just got a great idea.) 

Of course, I can expect a rebuttal to blast me and my concerns away, citing the fact that these firms would never, ever, ever do anything but the "right, law abiding thing" in the handling of our personal information.  Just remember who these guys are working for.  It ain't us brother....it's the "big brother."  Wake up America.

Please think about this and act, because right now, with so many folks out of work, these guys are in a feeding frenzy, and really building some in depth, probably illegal, databases.  Write/e-mail your elected officials. 

More fun would be to spend some time applying for jobs with firms that use these third party services, and use bogus information in an effort to corrupt their data bases.  I'm not encouraging this, but there is power in numbers folks.  Maybe then, employers would be a little more upfront about what is going on and stop using subterfuge to engage in a higher harm.  Employers: Stop being lazy and trying to min/max every decision.  Those screening firms are depriving you of some good, valuable resources via their unethical, contraversial, discriminatory, screening services.

Again, Im just raising the question here, one that someone needs to ask. 

What is the definition of "screening" anyway?   Yeah, right.