Criminal checks

Identity theft is a growing concern for the American public. There have been many articles, books, and broadcasts on the topic. High-profile data breaches at ChoicePoint and LexisNexis have served to heighten the sense of alarm. Newspapers have been regularly trumpeting the increasing rate of identity theft, while neglecting to mention that this frightening term refers to stolen credit card numbers (as opposed to a true impersonation) 90% of the time.

Much of the concern has focused on the social security number, or SSN. This is understandable as the SSN is the basic number used in the financial world. As more government records come online, there has been increasing pressure to remove SSNs from all records in order to prevent them from getting into the wrong hands. Stories like county officials posting property records with full SSNs that anyone could find horrified readers. Awareness of the problem is a good start to preventing egregious leaks such as this. But that does not mean that SSNs should vanish from all public records.

Social security numbers can be vital for criminal background checks. Criminal checks always require a […]