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Instant Checkmate
Criminal-record and social-profile search option.
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What Do Background Checks Check
Understand how background-check contents depend on the ordered product, distinguish criminal, employment and credit components, and ask which sources were actually checked.
What a background check checks depends on the product and the purpose
| Product / purpose | May include | Do not assume |
|---|---|---|
| Third-party employment screening | The CFPB says employment reports often include criminal background checks, public records, employment history and sometimes credit information. | That every employer orders every component, or that a credit report is always part of the package. |
| Employment verification package | Past jobs, dates, education, credentials or other verification services when ordered by the employer/provider. | That verification data proves criminal history or that the same lookback/scope applies to every employer. |
| Fingerprint-based criminal-history product | A state or FBI repository response tied to fingerprints under that product’s rules. | That it includes employment, education, civil records, social media, driving history or every local court document. |
| Public court-record search | Cases and docket information made public by the relevant court system. | That a court search equals a complete consumer background report or a nationwide criminal-history repository. |
Before interpreting a result, identify these four scope choices
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Purpose:
employment, housing, licensing, volunteering, personal review, or another defined use.
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Provider/product:
government criminal-history repository, court portal, consumer reporting company, verification service, or a package combining several sources.
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✓
Geography:
county, state, multi-state or federal/national. A “criminal check” label alone does not state which jurisdictions were searched.
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Components actually ordered:
criminal records, employment/education verification, credit, driving, professional license, or other elements. The order or disclosure should identify the relevant screening company or scope when available.
Employment screening adds notice and dispute rights when a consumer report is used
A report is not just a list of database hits
The CFPB says an employer generally needs written permission before obtaining an employment report from a consumer reporting company. If the employer plans adverse action based on that report, the applicant generally receives a copy of the report before the decision; the FTC also explains the pre-adverse/adverse-action notices and the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information with the reporting company. Those rules are about third-party consumer reports and should not be blindly applied to every government-record lookup.
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