Backgrounds Online's Knowledge Bank

Misconceptions and truths behind requesting dates of birth and social security numbers from your employees/applicants.

Many employers are of the belief that at no time during the hiring process can they ask an applicant for their date of birth and social security number, choosing to only request that information once the applicant has been hired. However, this information can be requested and is normally required to run a background check.

It is legal to request this information only if a background check is to be run on the applicant. Some employers choose to note this next by stating, “For background check purposes only” next to the requested information.

For companies who will have more than one employee with access to applicants’ personal information, such as the date of birth and social security numbers, Backgrounds Online has provided an easy solution. We allow applicants to call in their identifying information directly to us, completely bypassing the employer. The date of birth and social security numbers are then used to perform the background checks and at no time are they released to the employer.

One of the reasons this information is so important when conducting background checks is for the simple reason that most criminal courts file their records by name, date of birth and occasionally social security number. Therefore, Backgrounds Online needs the proper information to correctly identify whether or not applicants have criminal records. Other searches, such as driving records, credit reports and even education verifications often require the dates of birth and social security numbers as well.

If you need your applicants to call in their information directly to us, just give us a call and a member of our staff will help you set it up in a matter of minutes.