Canadian Bus Driver Refuses U.S. Background Check Over Privacy Issues

A little story from Canada raises some big issues concerning privacy laws, personal information, international borders, and background checks.

As reported by Canada's CBC News, a Canadian bus driver refused a mandatory background check by her employer using a U.S. security firm out of fear over what would happen to her personal information after it crossed the border into the United States, where privacy laws are believed to be less stringent.

According to the report, Stephanie Sydiaha from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was worried the background check would result in a loss of her privacy and would not allow her employer, First Student Canada, to run a background check on her using a U.S.-based security firm. She was also worried that she would lose her job if she refused to submit to a background check.

The bus company has since announced that it would use a Canadian company to do background checks from now on after other employees expressed similar concerns over privacy, Canada's CBC News reported.

This story from Canada sheds light on privacy issues here in the United States, where most job applicants do not realize that some of the personal information collected during pre-employment background checks may end up "offshore" – i.e. outside of the country – and far beyond U.S. privacy laws in a foreign call center or data processing location where there is little, if any, privacy protection. 

Although many U.S. state and federal laws protect privacy, these protections – as a practical matter – cease to exist once background check companies send data out of the country.  While some countries outside of the U.S. – like Canada and the European Union (EU) – have strong data privacy protection laws, many places where background check information is sent offshore for processing have little or no practical privacy protection. As a result, American job applicants have little to no ability to enforce their privacy rights overseas.

The lack of any meaningful protection once background check information is sent offshore is a major hurdle in the effort to protect privacy and prevent identity theft. Some U.S. companies – including Pre-Employ.com, a nationally recognized background check provider – believe good data security equals good business, and have a privacy policy mandating that they:

• Do NOT offshore Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
• Do NOT resell data to skip tracers, lawyers, or marketing lists.
• Do NOT repurpose data for other uses (such as marketing).
• Do NOT use foreign nationals abroad to access cases or calls.
• Are NOT owned by a credit bureau or by data aggregators.

To learn about Pre-Employ.com’s background check services and privacy policy, download a FREE white paper "Your Employee Data, How To Prevent Its Reselling and Offshoring," visit www.pre-employ.com, email info@pre-employ.com, or call 1-800-300-1821. To follow Pre-Employ.com on Twitter, visit www.twitter.com/PreEmploy.

tahearn@pre-employ.com

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