I wonder how long it will be before we get to the point with background checks where a background check is itself recorded in the background info.
We’re already there with credit checks.
When the results of the background check indicate that the person in question has had 327 background checks run on them, what petty tyrant wouldn’t consider that derogatory?
BC has similar issues
I am not sure that it is Big Data assigning secret guilt but rather poor practice being amplified by Big Data.
The biggest part of the problem is that the guilt they assign isn’t much of a secret at all. In fact, it seems like they are shouting about people’s guilt from the rooftops.
For a while now we’ve had prosecutors who slander defendants in the press, pre-trial, and police who think they only need to collect and hand over incriminating evidence, as opposed to all of it. Now the heavy-handed thugs have found a new, passive-aggressive way of bullying their victims.
Don’t worry, if you’ve done nothing wrong then… your still screwed at their whim.
I put up a blurb about this last month London police's secret "domestic extremist" list includes people who sketch protests
The worst part is that the police databases are such a mess that there actually is no way to scrub anything out of them even if they wanted to. A garbled, incorrect version of some court case you were peripherally involved in might pop up on a Mac II S hypercard deck 20 years later at some little village cop shop and then that’s it for your career. If you’re an axe murderer who’s served their sentence you can get a full pardon and erasure of records as per the legislation but a rumour of naughtiness is forever.
Actually I sell insurance, so I’ve had I think three background checks just this year. I also got one because I do taxes. It’s normal in all kinds of jobs.
Once you pass the first one, the rest don’t make you sweat.
Well, yes, it’s normal, in all sorts of jobs. And being commisioned in the military (at least in the US) requires that you have passed a deeper background check so you can get a Secret clearance.
But isn’t the point of the article Cory posted that police agencies are releasing information they shouldn’t.
It’s not getting the background check that would make someone sweat, it’s the not knowing what sort of crap is on it that shouldn’t be.
Alberta is the worst offender in Canada. Despite the release of non conviction records being addressed in the criminal code, police get around it with the “public safety” issue. The idea that there are no guidelines or controls so the information release, the decision of what is in the public interest is left up the office who receives the request. The officer’s bias will override what’s right.
Last week I was banned from Canada. Work takes me to Buffalo sometimes, and normally if I was in Buffalo I’d want to continue on to Toronto, a town I like,
but I havent had a passport in 20 years, and the passport office couldn’t find my records quickly enough to issue one. So I went to the bridge, showed my license and passport application, and asked if I could come in or should go back. They took me inside and asked me questions that got more hostile and instrusive, and ended up effectively banning me from the country. I’ve never been convicted of a crime, but have been accused a time or 3. Apparently there is some wrong data in their system that shows I have a criminal history. I’m wondering if I have a defamation claim against somebody.
What did they ask?
Or, that they’re counting accusations (regardless of whether they resulted in a conviction) as prejudicial information.
Either way, it sucks 
they asked a lot about the company i was planning to visit, then about my
criminal history, then about why my car is a mess.
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