It can be really hard to make an accurate judgement of someone, without really looking into their background. Luckily, it is now possible to perform a comprehensive people search through a variety of online services. These services are there to help you protect yourself. While the internet has given us much greatness (including the ability to background check someone very quickly), it has also enabled people to do whatever they want, hiding behind a cloak of anonymity. People can paint any picture that they like about them, leaving all their skeletons firmly hidden inside their closets. This puts you in a degree of danger, particularly if you meet someone online. Protecting yourself is not paranoid, it is sensible.
What Happens when You Use an Online Background Check?
When you use an online background check, you will instantly get your hands on important information that the owner of said information might not want you to know, but that you absolutely should know. This information is readily available to the general public, but it would mean visiting various individual courts in order to get hold of it, lengthy waiting times, and significant fees. Today, you can get all that information at once, from the comfort of your own home, at the click of a mouse button.
How to Perform a Background Check
At its most basic, it means typing in someone’s name in Google. However, there are also a number of people search services out there that ensure you are only presented with the information you were actually looking for. This includes property records, court records, arrest records, past marriages, and various other pieces of information that you may feel are necessary to make an accurate judgement of character.
Essentially, companies have done all the hard work for you: compiling the millions and millions of public court records from all over the country, and categorizing them within a database. You can use this if you have a blind date or meet someone online, for instance. However, it is also increasingly common for potential employers to use it on a candidate, for colleges and universities to do it for applicants, and so on. While some feel as if their privacy has been invaded, the reality is that all those records are public. This means that anyone with enough time on their hands would be able to get hold of them regardless.
If you didn’t know that it is now possible to get your hands on this type of information easily and quickly, this will have been quite an eye-opener for you. Perhaps now is the time to check whether your new girlfriend is who she says she is, whether your new manager truly has the best interest of the company at heart, or whether your new college dorm roommate is safe to live with. And while you’re there, you should look yourself up as well. People will search for you, so it is best to know what they will find in advance.
