California Senate Bill 909 Update

As a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA), Employment Screening Services, Inc. (ESS) has always maintained the highest standards in safeguarding the rights of the applicants we screen for you.  Unfortunately, not all CRAs are as committed to this ideal.  There are many who conduct business in ways we and some other CRAs don't espouse.  In fact, this was the genesis of ESS becoming one of the co-founders of the organization ConcernedCRAs. (www.ConcernedCRAs.com)  ConcernedCRAs is a group of like minded CRAs who agree not to "off-shore" domestic applicant information and further agree to utilize "national" databases in a responsible manner.

There is a growing trend among the larger CRAs to conduct their processing off-shore in countries such as India, Indonesia, etc. The problem is that once an applicant's information leaves the United States there is no real protection.  And there is little means to prosecute anyone who sells their personal identifiers ... a relatively common occurrence in these countries.

In most cases, the applicants and even the employers are not aware their applications are being processed off-shore. And many CRAs will not acknowledge this to their clients let alone volunteer it.

Since the beginning of this year, Larry Lambeth, President of ESS, and Mike Coffey, President of Imperative Information Group, co-founders of ConcernedCRAs, have worked with State Senator Rodney Wright (D) in California to write SB909.  The bill is designed to protect job applicants' identities by ensuring they are expressly informed that their personal information is being sent off-shore.  Furthermore, it states the CRA must obtain the applicant's written permission to do so.  In addition the bill requires the CRA to notify its clients --- the employers --- that they use this off-shoring practice for their processing.  SB909 also makes the CRA that sends information over seas responsible to the applicant in the event their information is used improperly. The bill does not forbid a CRA from processing information off-shore, only that they notify the employers and obtain permission from their applicants.

On Friday, May 28, 2010 the California Senate passed SB909 by a 22-7 vote. The bill now moves to the State Assembly for approval and then to the Governor for signature.  A lot can happen between now and then but this bill appears to be well on its way to approval.

As a client of ESS, this bill does not affect you directly because we never off-shore your domestic applicants' information anyway.  So we are already in full compliance with SB909.  Protecting you and your applicants is always a high priority for us.