Perhaps the importance of the “Made in the USA” label is rarely more critical than when an employer chooses a company to complete employment background checks.

When applying for employment in the United States the applicant will most likely have a background check completed on them at some point in the hiring process. The employer will order the background check by providing the background checking company with all of the necessary private personally identifiable information for the applicant including name, date of birth, Social Security number, driver’s license number, past employers and schools attended.

Some of the largest US background checking firms allow immediate access to all of this information to offshore service centers which are not bound by US laws regarding privacy protection and identity theft.

Unfortunately, in many cases the employer and the applicant have no idea that the background checking company routinely sends their private personally identifiable information offshore.

Ask your background checking company about offshoring. Make sure that you know where private personally identifiable information goes when you order a background check.