在许多日常情况下，您可能希望使用背景调查来了解更多关于某人的信息。也许邻居刚搬进隔壁，你想知道他或她是否有犯罪记录。也许你刚开始和某人约会，并想确保你的约会对象过去没有任何危险信号。背景调查是匿名的吗？在他或她不知道您正在完成一些个人尽职调查的情况下，您能否更多地了解您的新邻居或其他重要人物？

匿名背景调查确实存在，但背景调查是否可以匿名取决于检查的类型和情况。

在上述任何一种情况下，您的“背景调查”可能都不是正式的检查。要完成检查，您可以使用在线工具，例如 与 PeopleFinders 的 backgroundchecks.com 合作服务，它使您能够提取有关“朋友、邻居、同事或您自己”的犯罪记录和其他公共记录信息。或者或此外，您可以进行一些 Google 搜索或社交媒体浏览，以了解您可以了解一个人的哪些信息。

这种研究为匿名背景调查提供了基础——您可以在未经调查对象同意的情况下进行调查。检查不会自动通知您正在筛查的人，这意味着他或她不会知道正在进行背景调查。

这是一些额外的细节进入图片的地方。PeopleFinders 不是消费者报告机构 (CRA)，这意味着您无法使用该服务执行您的个人或工作生活可能需要的所有背景调查。如果您正在审查潜在员工、租户、贷款申请人或类似候选人，您 必须 使用 CRA，并且不能使用匿名背景调查。

在招聘情况下， 您必须遵守公平信用报告法 (FCRA)，该法也定义了 CRA 是什么。除其他要求外，FCRA 要求雇主以书面形式通知候选人该工作需要进行背景调查，并获得该申请人的书面同意以进行背景调查。这些披露和同意文件必须与其他申请材料分开提交给申请人，以免候选人对他们的同意意味着什么感到困惑。

此类支票不能匿名，因为求职者必须对其进行授权。租户和贷款申请筛选也是如此。

最后，答案是“背景调查是匿名的吗？” 是他们可以，但仅限于不太正式的检查情况。如果您进行背景调查只是为了更多地了解一个人，您可能会匿名进行该调查（并且无需他或她的知情或许可）。与您的个人生活完全相关的检查——包括对男朋友、女朋友或邻居的检查——属于这一类。

但是，如果您正在进行背景调查，在此期间有一些有形的东西处于危险之中——例如贷款、住房申请或工作——您必须遵守 FCRA 并在进行背景调查之前获得同意。这一点甚至适用于不太正式的招聘情况， 例如审查保姆来照顾您的孩子。

Anonymous background checks do exist, but whether a background check can be anonymous depends on the type of check and the situation.

In either of the scenarios discussed above, your “background check” likely would not be a formal check. To complete your check, you might use an online tool such as the backgroundchecks.com partnership service with PeopleFinders, which enables you to pull criminal records and other public record information about “friends, neighbors, colleagues, or yourself.” Alternatively or in addition, you might do some Google searching or social media browsing to see what you can learn about a person.

This kind of research provides the basis for anonymous background checks—you can run them without the consent of whoever you are researching. The checks won’t automatically notify the person you are screening, which means he or she won’t know that the background check is happening.

Here is where some additional details enter the picture. PeopleFinders is not a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA), which means that you cannot use the service to perform every background check that your personal or work life may require. If you are vetting a prospective employee, tenant, loan applicant, or similar candidate, you must use a CRA, and you cannot use anonymous background checks.

In a hiring situation, you must follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which also defines what a CRA is. Among other requirements, the FCRA demands that employers notify candidates in writing that a background check is required for the job and obtain written consent from that applicant to conduct the background check. These disclosure and consent documents must be presented to applicants separately from other application materials so that candidates aren’t confused about what their consent entails.

Such checks cannot be anonymous because job candidates must authorize them. The same is true for tenant and loan application screenings.

In the end, the answer to, “Are background checks anonymous?” is that they can be, but only in less formal checking situations. If you are running a background check just to learn a little bit more about a person, you can likely conduct that check anonymously (and without his or her knowledge or permission). Checks that are exclusively related to your personal life—including checks on boyfriends, girlfriends, or neighbors—fall into this category.

However, if you are running a background check during which something tangible is at stake—such as a loan, a housing application, or a job—you must abide by the FCRA and obtain consent before proceeding with that background check. This point applies even to less formal hiring situations, such as vetting a babysitter to watch your kids.