Data privacy – ever heard of it?
Data privacy is defined as the ability of a person to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent personal information about them is shared with or communicated to others.
Consumer reports are full of data! In order to conduct a background check, data is obtained and reported from a variety of sources: County courthouses, motor vehicle departments, credit bureaus, former employers, and schools… just to name a few. What happens when an important source, like a former employer, outsources data to a third-party?
The Work Number, owned by Equifax, has recently come under scrutiny for monopolizing employment verification data, and charging extremely high fees to anyone requesting the data. The information sold by Equifax technically belongs to the consumers – it’s their work history, it’s their salary information. Yet, Equifax is allowed to compile the data and sell it over and over again, often without notifying the consumer. Equifax does very little to ensure the data is accurate and complete before selling it. Consumers filing disputes with Equifax to have their information corrected can expect to spend 30+ days waiting on a resolution.
The employers who choose to sell data to Equifax are not willing to conduct traditional verifications anymore. They are typically unwilling to clear up errors, even if a consumer requests it. What can be done?
As data privacy and accurate consumer reporting have become a major focus, candidate-permissioned data has become an important piece within the background screening puzzle. We no longer have to rely on greedy third-parties to obtain employment verification data. The largest payroll providers, including ADP and Paycom, allow current and former employees to release their own employment verification data using a secure API (Application Programming Interface). The candidate gives the payroll provider permission to share the data each and every time it is requested, so the consumer is always informed about who is requesting their data and when it is released. The consumer can see exactly what information is being released. This means if the consumer notices any potential errors, they can resolve them before the information is sent anywhere.
Candidate-permissioned data is the future way to conduct employment verifications, and we’re ready for it! Validity can offer your candidates access to our direct SOC 2 Compliant integration, connecting them to over 75 of the largest payroll providers in the United States. If you’ve been thinking about it, the time to take action is now.
