What your background check says, before an employer reads it

You are entitled to see your own background check and virtually nobody does, which means most people discover an error only after they have been rejected — and often are never told the report was the reason. Errors are not rare: wrong-person matches, dismissed charges recorded as convictions, and records that should have aged off are all common.

• ◷This is preventive rather than remedial. Fixing an error before you apply is worth far more than disputing it after a rejection.
• ◷You have a right to a standalone disclosure and a pre-adverse-action notice with a copy of the report. Many employers skip the second one.
• ◷Your address history on people-search sites is also used informally by some employers, accurately or otherwise.