Background check
Also known as: Background screening · Employment screening · Tenant screening · Driver screening
A check of a person's history — criminal, identity, driving, credit, sanctions — before hiring them, renting to them or granting them access to an asset.
At Zarv
10x faster: more than 200 sources in under 150ms, against 7 to 14 days at traditional providers.
In the US a background check is usually a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act when a third party compiles it for employment, tenancy, credit or insurance. That brings rules. For employment, the employer must give a clear disclosure in a document consisting solely of that disclosure, get the applicant's written authorization, and — before taking adverse action based on the report — provide a copy of it and a summary of the applicant's rights.
The traditional model treats each source as a manual lookup — county courts, state repositories, motor vehicle records — and returns a dossier days later. That works for an executive hire; it does not work for onboarding gig drivers before a shift or approving a renter at the counter.
Content has limits too: the FCRA bars reporting most adverse items older than seven years, although convictions are not time-limited, and equal-employment law governs how a record may be used. Zarv ID queries more than 200 sources in under 150ms — 10 times faster than traditional providers — and graph analysis surfaces ties that record-by-record checking cannot show.
Frequently asked questions
What shows up on a background check?
It depends on the check ordered. Common components are identity and address history, criminal records, sex offender registries, sanctions lists, driving records, employment and education verification and, for some roles, credit history.
Does an employer need permission to run a background check?
Yes, when the check is a consumer report from a background screening company. The FCRA requires a standalone written disclosure and the applicant's written authorization before the report is obtained, and a copy of the report plus a summary of rights before any adverse decision based on it.