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Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

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Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#21

Post by dyanisse »

koryteg wrote: post #20
nulagrithom wrote: post #16

The fear of the SSN input in the comments is interesting. That was my knee-jerk reaction as well. I'm not saying the fear is unwarranted, but do you know where your employer is inputting your SSN and where they keep it? How safe do you think your personal data is? I built an employment application 'web app' for a job not too long ago. It was terrible , and against all my objections, we ended up asking for the applica…

if OP open sourced the code I would feel more comfortable about it. its weird that the first thought of hesitation was "that's weird they didn't do any customization to bootstrap" then this: http://builtwith.com/?https%3a%2f%2fcheckr.io%2f I dont see any backend language or framework. what does this mean?

bultwith.com just scans web pages and guesses front-end libraries. We use Ruby/Sinatra/MySQL/MongoDB/IronMQ for the back-end.

Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#22

Post by scolson »

Like someone else pointed out, it would be ideal to be able to delete reports (or at a minimum ssn information).

The site looks nice and clean. After running a report on myself, I noticed it said for a minute or so that my ssn was incorrect before it changed to stating it was cleared.

Also, while the national check for me came back clear (as expected), I was curious if that was literally all the report said. I would love to see more detailed reporting underlying the results. Obviously if it doesn't say anything more than "clear" or "no results" or something, then this probably wouldn't be useful.

Pricing-wise, I think it is somewhat fair and were I a bigger company with an HR group, you would be a solid candidate as a vendor.

Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#23

Post by danneu »

koryteg wrote: post #20
nulagrithom wrote: post #16

The fear of the SSN input in the comments is interesting. That was my knee-jerk reaction as well. I'm not saying the fear is unwarranted, but do you know where your employer is inputting your SSN and where they keep it? How safe do you think your personal data is? I built an employment application 'web app' for a job not too long ago. It was terrible , and against all my objections, we ended up asking for the applica…

if OP open sourced the code I would feel more comfortable about it. its weird that the first thought of hesitation was "that's weird they didn't do any customization to bootstrap" then this: http://builtwith.com/?https%3a%2f%2fcheckr.io%2f I dont see any backend language or framework. what does this mean?

It simply means there's no obvious fingerprint that builtwith.com was able to detect.

For example, the default Express app contains `X-Powered-By: Express` in the response header. Ruby on Rails is usually sniffed by its predictable cookie signature.

You gain nothing from broadcasting your back-end stack to the world.

Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#24

Post by phillmv »

timjahn wrote: post #17
phillmv wrote: post #8

Talk about a great way to phish any unsuspecting saps who might try out the service. Also, I'm vaguely horrified at the notion that background checks might become standard even for 'sharing economy' gigs. Ah, well, you see, your pot charge disqualifies you from picking up my laundry.

Would you ever want a stranger driving you home who wasn't background checked in some way? I wouldn't.

I have the privilege of being a white male who lives in a safe city and thus rarely feels threatened.

So, it's not something I think about. What's the threat model? They're going to case your house and rob you at some point in the future?

In an ideal world, that sounds plausible. Let's keep child molesters away from child care! Who can disagree with that?

But in practice, it means that all offenders are permanent second class citizens barred from non-marginal employment opportunities.

It's extremely pernicious, and you don't have to exaggerate anything to reach slippery slopes. Because there is no discretion in the system, anyone remotely tagged by law enforcement can be screwed by this.

Recently here in Canada it turns out that non-offense data was turning up in background checks. So, some guy was in the process of becoming a nurse, iirc, but was not allowed to graduate - because his neighbour five years ago was a drug dealer. That's it. The background check revealed that he was asked some questions and that's that. Four years of tuition down the drain.

If you can never find a way to reasonably support yourself, regardless of how much you've turned your life around, then we've created a self fulfilling prophesy in terms of recidivism rates.

Keep in mind we're talking about the sharing economy, which almost by definition are going to be bottom of the barrel 'gigs' to begin with.

Does it matter if person folding your laundry got into a drunken fight when they were 19? Not really.

Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#25

Post by [deleted] »

phillmv wrote: post #8

Talk about a great way to phish any unsuspecting saps who might try out the service. Also, I'm vaguely horrified at the notion that background checks might become standard even for 'sharing economy' gigs. Ah, well, you see, your pot charge disqualifies you from picking up my laundry.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#26

Post by dyanisse »

scolson wrote: post #22

Like someone else pointed out, it would be ideal to be able to delete reports (or at a minimum ssn information). The site looks nice and clean. After running a report on myself, I noticed it said for a minute or so that my ssn was incorrect before it changed to stating it was cleared. Also, while the national check for me came back clear (as expected), I was curious if that was literally all the report said. I would…

please email daniel at checkr.io and we will delete your SSN and personal data.

This is a light version of a background check (since we have to pay for it). Our pricing page references packages with extensive screenings and results.

Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#27

Post by scolson »

scolson wrote: post #22

Like someone else pointed out, it would be ideal to be able to delete reports (or at a minimum ssn information). The site looks nice and clean. After running a report on myself, I noticed it said for a minute or so that my ssn was incorrect before it changed to stating it was cleared. Also, while the national check for me came back clear (as expected), I was curious if that was literally all the report said. I would…

As a follow-up, is your privacy policy industry consistent? For a group disclaiming any warranty over storage of personal information, it seems that much more vital that customers would have a way to manually delete and/or auto-purge the records so that we can minimize risk.

Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#28

Post by pbreit »

nulagrithom wrote: post #16

The fear of the SSN input in the comments is interesting. That was my knee-jerk reaction as well. I'm not saying the fear is unwarranted, but do you know where your employer is inputting your SSN and where they keep it? How safe do you think your personal data is? I built an employment application 'web app' for a job not too long ago. It was terrible , and against all my objections, we ended up asking for the applica…

I would have a _lot_ more trust in my employer than some random, anonymous web site on HN. Even if I might think my employer would screw it up.

Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#29

Post by timjahn »

phillmv wrote: post #24
timjahn wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you ever want a stranger driving you home who wasn't background checked in some way? I wouldn't.

I have the privilege of being a white male who lives in a safe city and thus rarely feels threatened. So, it's not something I think about. What's the threat model? They're going to case your house and rob you at some point in the future? In an ideal world, that sounds plausible. Let's keep child molesters away from child care! Who can disagree with that? But in practice, it means that all offenders are permanent sec…

"Does it matter if person folding your laundry got into a drunken fight when they were 19? Not really."

No. It doesn't.

Does it matter if a person with a history of DUIs (or even ONE) drives me for Lyft? Yes.

Does it matter if a person with a history of armed robbery or home invasion delivers groceries to my house for Instacart? Yes.

Re: Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks

#30

Post by mgkimsal »

timjahn wrote: post #17
phillmv wrote: post #8

Talk about a great way to phish any unsuspecting saps who might try out the service. Also, I'm vaguely horrified at the notion that background checks might become standard even for 'sharing economy' gigs. Ah, well, you see, your pot charge disqualifies you from picking up my laundry.

Would you ever want a stranger driving you home who wasn't background checked in some way? I wouldn't.

front line employees making $9/hour get screened, but executives with golden parachutes manage to get hired with falsified university transcripts, leaving trails of steaming wreckage behind them, destroying thousands of those $9/hour jobs. :(

no real relevance to what you posted, but it made me want to rant.

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