简单来说，是的，您可以对任何人进行背景调查。如果您有一个人的名字，就可以查看他们的历史、检查他们的犯罪记录、查找有关他们驾驶记录的详细信息等等。但是，未经某人同意对某人进行背景调查可能会产生法律影响。
专业背景下的背景调查
在对任何人进行背景调查之前要问自己的最重要的问题是调查背后的目的。您是否在专业环境中进行背景调查？也许您正在筛选正在考虑为您的企业招聘的求职者。也许您是一位房东，希望在您批准或拒绝他们的申请之前对潜在租户进行背景调查。
在这两种情况中的任何一种情况下，您都计划使用某人的背景调查信息来做出有关他们及其未来的重要决定。有许多法律规定在这种情况下您可以做什么和不可以做什么。至关重要的是，在进行背景调查之前，您必须获得正在审查的人的同意。否则，你就是不遵守法律。您也不尊重潜在员工或租户受法律保护的权利。
违反此级别的合规性可能会导致法律诉讼。例如，雇主在出于工作目的进行背景调查时必须遵守《公平信用报告法》(FCRA)。FCRA 有几个雇主必须遵守的详细步骤和政策。这些要求涉及从同意书到雇主应使用的程序通知候选人不利的招聘决定的所有内容。
最终，您 可以 在专业环境中对任何人进行背景调查——但前提是您必须通过适当的渠道披露您的意图并获得授权。大多数雇主使用背景调查来筛选所有新员工。这些雇主在严格遵守 FCRA 时非常小心，因为不这样做可能是一个代价高昂的错误。
个人环境中的背景调查
审查潜在员工已成为背景调查最受欢迎的应用程序之一。并非所有的背景调查都发生在就业环境中——甚至在专业环境中。如果您出于个人原因希望 对某人进行背景调查，这与筛选潜在租户或求职者完全不同。
以下是一些潜在的背景调查场景，这些场景更多地属于个人方面：
人际关系：也许您在网上或通过约会网站或应用程序认识了某个人， 并且您想更多地了解他们。您正在考虑与此人建立个人关系，但希望首先让您可以信任此人。在这种情况下，您可能会对潜在的另一半进行背景调查，以确保他们就是他们所说的那样。
保姆： 您正在寻找可以在放学后或晚上照顾您的孩子的保姆。您认识的任何人都无法承担责任，这意味着您需要雇用不认识的人。在这种情况下，您可能会进行背景调查以寻找潜在的危险信号。您希望您的孩子得到妥善照顾，让您高枕无忧，背景调查可以为您提供帮助。
好奇心： 你最近搬进了一个新的
邻里 并注意到一些可疑的人在附近闲逛
邻居 房子。你认为
邻居 可能涉及某种犯罪活动，但您不确定如何确定。在这种情况下，您可能对运行背景调查感兴趣
邻居 只是想看看你可以了解他们和他们的历史。
自我检查： 您正在准备面试，并想确切地知道雇主在对您进行背景调查时会看到什么。作为预防措施，您 对自己进行背景调查， 以确保您的记录看起来应该如此。
与围绕专业背景调查的规则相比，围绕这些类型的背景调查的规则较少被理解，通常也较少执行 。当雇主对您进行背景调查时，他们知道他们需要获得您的同意以避免合规问题。如果你问普通人是否需要申请人同意才能进行就业背景调查，他们会说是。不过，如果您问某人有关保姆或其他重要人物的背景调查，答案可能会有很大不同。如果您想运行其中一项检查，是否需要同意？
答案很复杂。犯罪历史信息（以及背景调查发现的大多数其他信息）是公共记录。有时，您只需在 Google 上搜索某人的姓名即可找到此信息。如果您不需要同意谷歌某人，您是否需要同意才能通过背景调查服务订购更正式的检查——其中许多是在线的？
如果您想对另一半进行基于姓名的背景调查，
雇用保姆照看您的孩子可能比雇用某人在您的企业中担任全职工作更不正式。但是，您仍然是您选择雇用担任此职位的人的“雇主”。因此，获得同意总是最明智的。同样的经验法则适用于您雇用为您和您的家人提供服务的任何人——从管家到投资经纪人再到房地产经纪人
Background Checks in a Professional Setting
The most important question to ask yourself before running a background check on anyone concerns the purpose behind the check. Are you conducting a background check in a professional setting? Perhaps you are screening a job candidate you are thinking about hiring for your business. Maybe you are a landlord who wants to do background checks on potential tenants before you approve or deny their applications.
In either of these situations, you are planning to use a person’s background check information to make important decisions about them and their future. There are numerous laws that dictate what you can and cannot do in this kind of setting. Crucially, you must obtain the consent of the person you are vetting before you move forward with the background check. Otherwise, you are failing to comply with the law. You are also disrespecting the legally-protected rights of a prospective employee or tenant.
Breaches of compliance on this level can lead to legal action. For instance, employers are required to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when conducting background checks for job purposes. The FCRA has several detailed steps and policies that employers must follow. These requirements concern everything from the consent form to the process an employer should use to notify a candidate about an adverse hiring decision.
Ultimately, you can run a background check on anyone in a professional setting—but only if you go through the proper channels to disclose your intentions and obtain authorization. Most employers use background checks to screen all new hires. These employers are extremely careful about following the FCRA to the letter, as failing to do so can be an extremely costly mistake.
Background Checks in a Personal Setting
Vetting prospective employees has become one of the most popular applications for background checks. Not all background checks occur in the employment setting—or even in a professional setting. If you wish to run a background check on someone for personal reasons, it’s an entirely different ballgame than screening a potential tenant or job applicant.
Here are a few potential background check scenarios that fall more on the personal side of the spectrum:
Personal relationships: Perhaps you met someone online or via a dating website or app and you want to know more about them. You are considering starting a personal relationship with this person, but want to make you can trust the person first. In this scenario, you might run a background check on your would-be significant other to make sure they are who they say they are.
Babysitting: You are looking for a babysitter who can care for your children after school or in the evenings. No one you know personally can take on the responsibility, which means you need to hire someone you don’t know. You might run a background check in this situation to look for potential red flags. You want to have peace of mind that your children are in good hands, and a background check can give it to you.
Curiosity: You recently moved into a new
neighborhood and have noticed some suspicious people hanging around the
neighbor’s house. You think the
neighbor might be involved in some sort of criminal operation, but you aren’t sure how to find out for sure. In this situation, you might be interested in running a background check on the
neighbor just to see what you can learn about them and their history.
Self-checks: You are preparing for a job interview and want to know exactly what an employer will see when they run a background check on you. As a precaution, you run a background check on yourself to make sure your record looks the way it should.
The rules around these types of background checks are less understood and typically less enforced than the rules around professional setting background checks. When an employer runs a background check on you, they know they need to obtain your consent to avoid problems with compliance. If you asked the average person whether applicant consent was necessary for an employment background check, they would say yes. Answers would probably vary a lot more if you asked someone about background checks for babysitters or significant others, though. Do you need consent if you want to run one of these checks?
The answer is complicated. Criminal history information (and most other information that background checks find) is public record. You can sometimes find this information just by doing a Google search of a person’s name. If you don’t need to consent to Google someone, do you need consent to order a more formal check through a background check service—many of which are online?
If you want to run a name-based background check on a significant other, a
Hiring a babysitter to watch your kids might be a less formal process than hiring someone for a full-time job at your business. However, you are still serving as the “employer” for the person you choose to hire for this role. As such, it’s always wisest to get consent. The same rule of thumb applies to anyone you hire to provide a service for you and your family—from housekeepers to investment brokers to realtors
