Background Checks New Addition to Employment Dossier
Lawmakers to Crack Down on Data Brokers
In January 2006 the Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006, which would create felony criminal penalties for stealing and selling the records of mobile phone, landline, and VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) subscribers was introduced to the Senate. A second bill was also introduced to the House of Representatives that would increase criminal penalties for people who pose as account holders to access telephone and cell phone records.
In February of 2006 The House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to the owners of web sites telling them to turn over their information, including their annual revenues, their top customers, and all methods they use to obtain customer telephone records.
During Congressional hearings in June it was learned from the testimony of data brokers that Federal and local police across the country, as well as some of the nations best-known companies, have been gathering Americans' phone records from private data brokers without subpoenas or warrants.
As a result, the availability of telephone records has been suspended and consequent laws are sure to be enacted to prevent the future availability of this information.
In this regard the usage of telecom information by private investigators and attorneys to identify non-published telephone and cell phone numbers to aid in identifying and locating individuals is not available and in some instances locating an individual will be much more difficult.
For further information please refer to the following news articles.
The majority of firms today, to one degree or another, perform background checks on prospective employees.
Recently it has come to light of the dangers of posting entries on social networking web sites, such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com, that were too personal and how this might undermine one's career goals.
Recruiters and employers are starting to view these sites to learn more about their applicants, especially college students and new graduates.
Few people have considered that they may be unwittingly creating a kind of shadow resume that will hurt their employment opportunities for decades to come.
In addition corporate bloggers are coping with increased vigilance by bosses. Getting fired for blog entries is so common now that its' come to be characterized by the term "dooced".
Some do cite mounting privacy concerns over the use of such information related to employment.
Employers could never ask about such things, but if its' on the Web, they're entitled to make decisions based on it therefore online material could become a part of every employment dossier.
For further information please refer to the following news article.
