Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks
checkr.io
checkr.io
Also, I'm vaguely horrified at the notion that background checks might become standard even for 'sharing economy' gigs. Ah, well, you see, your pot charge disqualifies you from picking up my laundry.
I wouldn't.
So, it's not something I think about. What's the threat model? They're going to case your house and rob you at some point in the future?
In an ideal world, that sounds plausible. Let's keep child molesters away from child care! Who can disagree with that?
But in practice, it means that all offenders are permanent second class citizens barred from non-marginal employment opportunities.
It's extremely pernicious, and you don't have to exaggerate anything to reach slippery slopes. Because there is no discretion in the system, anyone remotely tagged by law enforcement can be screwed by this.
Recently here in Canada it turns out that non-offense data was turning up in background checks. So, some guy was in the process of becoming a nurse, iirc, but was not allowed to graduate - because his neighbour five years ago was a drug dealer. That's it. The background check revealed that he was asked some questions and that's that. Four years of tuition down the drain.
If you can never find a way to reasonably support yourself, regardless of how much you've turned your life around, then we've created a self fulfilling prophesy in terms of recidivism rates.
Keep in mind we're talking about the sharing economy, which almost by definition are going to be bottom of the barrel 'gigs' to begin with.
Does it matter if person folding your laundry got into a drunken fight when they were 19? Not really.
No. It doesn't.
Does it matter if a person with a history of DUIs (or even ONE) drives me for Lyft? Yes.
Does it matter if a person with a history of armed robbery or home invasion delivers groceries to my house for Instacart? Yes.
Armed robbery and home invasion are very different crimes. Just because they held up a liquor store doesn't mean they're going to rob you while you sit in the backseat of their car, with their picture and full identity flashing on your phone. And home invasions are crimes of opportunity.
I'm not sure I think that background discrimination is always wrong. Just that it's grossly overused, and there is no room for discretion - especially considering how many people get bullshit charges in the US.
Does a DUI disqualify you from being a good programmer, or a well respected project manager? I'm not sure that it does. Maybe you're an asshole, or maybe you did something stupid while undergoing your divorce.
It's especially egregious to start barring people from the bottom-of-the-barrel gigs as well. At that rate, you might as well never release them from prison to begin with.
Yeah, DUI should disqualify you from ever driving professionally IMO. Anecdotal, sure, but my experience is that people who actually have a DUI are the ones that finally got caught after years.
Then again, the well to do people I know (or ones with a well to do family) with a DUI actually got their charge reduced to reckless driving by fighting it in court, so maybe there are as many false negatives as positives.
What you are implying is that once someone drives drunk they will never stop. If that's the case, they should be stripped of their license completely. It doesn't make sense to stop half way and say they can keep driving themselves but can't drive professionally. Both scenarios put many people at risk.
I see you have a huge amount of faith in the legal system... That is sad
I know people that are in their mid 40's that are still denied employment because of drug possession charges then incurred in their teens.
Companies such as yours are prohibited from disclosing it because you are classified as "consumer reporting agency" however the disclosure of criminal records by non-consumer reporting agencies is not limited to 7 years.
2. My post said 5 years ago so even under your misguided time frame your company would still disclose this information
3. I am firmly against databases and service companies such as yours... I find it creepy and a huge invasion of personal liberty and privacy.
Further I do not trust the government or the legal system at all, and have no reason to believe a person convicted of DUI or raping a child under the current legal system was in fact guilty of those charges.
Lastly even if a person is a criminal I do not believe in the notion of a Scarlet Letter society which is what this company is companies like it are attempting to create. This effectively kills any Second Chance a person that made a mistake in the past has. You forever make them second class and ultimately encourage them to commit more, and probably ever increasing violent crimes
There will be one conditional statement.
If criminal at any point in time, deny.
That's it.
The overwhelming majority of those utilizing such services do not have the depth or foresight to distinguish between various offenses nor the time periods involved.
no real relevance to what you posted, but it made me want to rant.
Be careful. Be thoughtful.
That being said, I'm into it. Those arguing about it's usefulness seem either oblivious to, or annoyed by, the vast number of background checks that are run in this country every day.
The sources are the 3 credit bureaus for SSN, direct access to DMVs for MVR, and different databases and sources for criminal data.
I'm not saying the fear is unwarranted, but do you know where your employer is inputting your SSN and where they keep it? How safe do you think your personal data is?
I built an employment application 'web app' for a job not too long ago. It was terrible, and against all my objections, we ended up asking for the applicants SSN. It certainly wasn't secure by any stretch of the imagination, and I cringe a little every time I see an application come in. I'm sure this sort of thing happens daily.
Anyway, I went ahead and put my SSN in to Checkr. It came up with an address I've never lived at, next to 3 addresses I actually have lived at. Not sure what that's about.
I dont see any backend language or framework. what does this mean?
For example, the default Express app contains `X-Powered-By: Express` in the response header. Ruby on Rails is usually sniffed by its predictable cookie signature.
You gain nothing from broadcasting your back-end stack to the world.
Regardless of whether I think it's safe or not, the reality is that I can sue my employer if there is something malicious. My employer is also naturally incentivized to make sure nothing happens to my identity (because if they did I'd leave the company, and he/she would lose a resource).
The point I'm trying to make isn't that you should go ahead and put your SSN in to random websites, but you need to realize your SSN goes a lot of places. Within the last hour I happened to find my parents' names, signatures, DoB, address, and SSNs in public documents from a county website. Keep track of your credit and watch for identity theft. Knowing that you are careful won't help as much as you think. Who knows who will end up using Checkr?
The site looks nice and clean. After running a report on myself, I noticed it said for a minute or so that my ssn was incorrect before it changed to stating it was cleared.
Also, while the national check for me came back clear (as expected), I was curious if that was literally all the report said. I would love to see more detailed reporting underlying the results. Obviously if it doesn't say anything more than "clear" or "no results" or something, then this probably wouldn't be useful.
Pricing-wise, I think it is somewhat fair and were I a bigger company with an HR group, you would be a solid candidate as a vendor.
This is a light version of a background check (since we have to pay for it). Our pricing page references packages with extensive screenings and results.
I will happily email daniel for deleting the personal data. While that works well for a HN comment thread, I still think it shouldn't require interaction on your part.
"This application will be able to read and write all user data. This includes the following: Private email addresses Profile information Followers"
Dealing with country-specific services is as good as aggregating relevant databases directly.
I'd pay good money for a single API that covered most of the western world, and seamlessly integrated external services (e.g. Equifax in the UK)
Take for instance the credit scoring system. There is no such thing as Expedia or privately maintained credit scoring system outside the UK. In France, the Bank of France maintains files which are only available to financial institutions holding a licence.
Another example, in the UK, the sex offenders register is only available through the police, in other countries, there have been citizen initiatives to create such database for specific areas.
This kind of service is more realistic in the US as their SSN is the main ID for background check.