There are many rules and laws that govern the fair and appropriate use of public record information. This was not always the case; with the increase of online searching about individuals, the appropriate usage and privacy regulations regarding the use and sale of public record data was previously very poorly defined.

Here are some of the bodies and legislation that have had a significant impact on the background check industry.

IRSG
IN 1997 a voluntary and self-regulating group of companies came together to form the Individual References Services Group (IRSG). Their pledge (they were all industry insiders) was to define and adopt a set of self-regulatory principles that governed the dissemination of private or personal data.

Eleven principles were defined; these included Education, Accuracy, Limitations on distributing Non-Public information, Privacy and Protection for Minors.

The IRSG disbanded in 2001 as stricter enforceable legislation was enacted.

FCRA
While the IRSG, were a self-governing and organization, The Fair Credit Report Act (FCRA) is legislation that has very specific language about the use of public record information for making decisions about employment or tenancy. The FCRA defines a background check report (and a credit report for that matter) as a “consumer report” and places a number of limitations on the aging and usage of public record data. Here’s a good reference for more information on the FCRA legislation surrounding employment background checks.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley

On November 12, 1999 congress enacted the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act. While this broad bill covered many other issues it also created very specific legislation about the usage of Financial Privacy Data. The reason this is relevant is that much of the public record data distributed in the form of a background check was sourced from the data obtained from credit bureaus such as Trams Union, Equifax and Experian.