Background checks are everywhere these days, not least because they are much easier and cheaper to get done today, what with computer databases of every description letting it all hang out. You can easily buy anyone’s traffic records, credit reports, or anything else, for a couple of dollars. But why do employers and landlords really want all this information now when your used to be good enough before?

A part of this new trend has to do with what the law has come to require since the terrorist threats on this country. Some jobs actually require background checks for a criminal record: jobs that involve working with vulnerable people, children and the elderly, for instance. But there are other more mundane reasons too. There have been so many corporate scandals beginning with Enron and lately with the financial meltdown, and employers do not want anyone tainted with these events as far as possible. There have also been a rash of lawsuits against companies recently arising from irresponsible employee behavior; people actually sue a company when an employee of theirs conducts himself irresponsibly. The main reasons for background checks to do with employment or anything else though have to do with simple self-protection: if people are allowed to get away with it, they can at a moment’s notice turn a 1% contribution they made to their previous employer’s bottomline into a 50% contribution, and turn a high school diploma into an MBA in the blink of an eye.

A lot of people today worry about the implications it has on individual privacy to have things head off in such a direction. Some may feel that they have nothing to hide and it bothers no one to have an employer look closely; opponents though feel that things are never that simple. Like in the movie Brazil, it is easy for mechanized processes to create a fatal mistake that affects someone; and additionally, information presented out of context on a personal record can easily ruin a person’s life for no reason.

The law does step up to protect the little man though. In states like California, there are considerable restrictions placed on what an employer can dig for. Information about whether you have ever been arrested is treated as off-limits: only convictions are allowed to be searched for, unless of course the arrest has to do with sexual misconduct. Drug-related misdemeanors can be inquired into only if they are more recent than two years old. These are a matter of public record, so the state depends on a sense of self-restraint among the employer community. The law takes a stand against improper and unfair use of the public record, but it does not go any farther than that. In fact, employers can actually ask you to volunteer the confidential information they are after, and there is nothing to stop them from asking.

There are a few steps that you could possibly take to be on your guard against improper use of your record. Before you plan to go out on the job market, you can order a personal copy of your credit report and your court records. Look closely to see if there is anything that seems out of place. The courts do not always run a very tight ship, and their records can often be outdated; you can appeal anything that is not correct. Ask to see a copy of your employer’s personnel file; there’s a good chance that your new employer will tap your old employer for references. If there is anything amiss in your personnel file, be sure to bring it up. The whole background check concept can be a little unfair. For most people it does work well; but there really are people who do slip in between the cracks.