What to Do When Someone Runs a Background Check on You?

What to Do When Someone Runs a Background Check on You?

We live in a world where data plays a crucial role. As consumers, we prefer to read more data on the products and services we buy. It is also obvious that someone would do a background check especially when you are seeking employment. Over the years, background checks have become quite common, especially for online dating, housing screenings and employment offers. In a world where internet frauds and scams can happen to anyone, people prefer to verify the people they connect, interact and hire. This allows them to manage their personal and professional relationships better.

Here are 5 things you can do when someone runs a background check on you. 

1. Take It in Stride

We are all concerned about our privacy. Hence, when you learn that someone is doing a background check on you it is obvious that you might panic why someone is doing so. However, there are plenty of reasons why someone is snooping and digging for information about you. Also, you need to focus on what type of background checks are being done about you. In most cases, people are searching for information about you online because they want to know more about you. 

2. Talk to Your Past and Present Employers

It is likely that if someone has done a background check about you it can be one of your ex-employers or your current employer. Various employers and companies keep doing these background checks to update their employee databases. Hence, it is likely that they might have reasons to do an employee background check. Also, if you are seeking job actively recently you might want to talk to one of your potential employers and find out if they have any reasons to conduct pre-employment background checks. In many cases, employers will have to reach out to you to find out more about personal details. 

3. Evaluate Your Social Media Data

Often we end up putting a lot of information on our social media profiles and that can be a cause of worry. For this, you can always set privacy settings on your social media profiles to retain your privacy. Also, you would want to clean up your social media account to ensure that there is no unwanted and outdated information. If you want to control how much information others can see you need to have clarity on what you should and shouldn’t post. It is possible that your 

4. Check Your Credit Report

One of the things you need to do to find out if someone is running a background check on you is to pull up your credit report. While your credit report does stay private certain individuals can retrieve your credit report history including your landlords, employers, government agencies, lenders and insurance agencies. If you know how to maintain a good credit score you don’t have to worry much because that is what the others will see as well. However, you will be able to narrow down the list of parties who pulled up your credit score for various reasons. 

5. Do a Background Check on Yourself

Self-assessment is the best way to find out what people are going to find when they do a background check on you. Hence, you can always look for background check services that can offer you services and help you discover more information about yourself online. Also, you get to find out what information in the report is inaccurate and outdated. Knowing this can help you rectify the information and allow you to address the situation before you lose an opportunity. For this, you can hire professionals online and they can do a background verification and check for you.