4 ms·

What's the alternative to public conviction information? Secret trials?

Zak 5y ago
Some countries have a concept of a right to be forgotten. After a certain amount of time passes, information about criminal convictions is no longer public; disseminating such information is generally illegal; making employment decisions based on it is also illegal. It's not airtight, but it wouldn't need to be to alleviate the problem. It would restrict what mainstream background check providers could offer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  Sounds a bit dystopian requiring everyone to pretend that a trial never took place when people know it did?
  - mjevans 5y ago
    It is dystopian to be sentenced to social death without any chance of reform. All the more so if we can ever figure out the medical stuff and live a lot longer and/or repair injury and defect that might hinder rational thought. There's got to be a method for redemption and being recognized as redeemed. The issue today is that hiring processes are not really fair, they can't be objectively run with subjective measures and random entropy pools. If hiring were fair and redeemed people treated the same as never convicted people then there wouldn't be a need for the EU's current bandaid.
    - chrisseaton 5y ago
      > There's got to be a method for redemption and being recognized as redeemed. Surely forgiveness, rather than feigned amnesia?
      - mLuby 5y ago
        "To err is human; to forgive, divine." As is obvious from the attitudes in this thread, legally enforced amnesia is the only practical solution.
GeoAtreides 5y ago
In Europe there are no such things as: 1) secret trials (there are in US[1]) 2) background checks (for the majority of jobs). Also, criminal records get erased after a period of time, depending on the crime committed. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intellig...
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  > no such things as secret trials ... criminal records get erased after a period of time So it becomes a secret that the trial happened? And I've been background checked for jobs I've had in Europe, even normal civilian jobs.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- dahfizz 5y ago
  If court records are public, is there any technical reason a company could not scrape the records and perform background checks? Or is it a cultural difference that makes background checks less popular?
  - awd 5y ago
    The various predecessors of the GDPR forbid it.
    - dahfizz 5y ago
      Forbid looking at court records? Or forbid monetizing it?

Zak 5y ago

Some countries have a concept of a right to be forgotten. After a certain amount of time passes, information about criminal convictions is no longer public; disseminating such information is generally illegal; making employment decisions based on it is also illegal. It's not airtight, but it wouldn't need to be to alleviate the problem. It would restrict what mainstream background check providers could offer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten

chrisseaton 5y ago
Sounds a bit dystopian requiring everyone to pretend that a trial never took place when people know it did?
- mjevans 5y ago
  It is dystopian to be sentenced to social death without any chance of reform. All the more so if we can ever figure out the medical stuff and live a lot longer and/or repair injury and defect that might hinder rational thought. There's got to be a method for redemption and being recognized as redeemed. The issue today is that hiring processes are not really fair, they can't be objectively run with subjective measures and random entropy pools. If hiring were fair and redeemed people treated the same as never convicted people then there wouldn't be a need for the EU's current bandaid.
  - chrisseaton 5y ago
    > There's got to be a method for redemption and being recognized as redeemed. Surely forgiveness, rather than feigned amnesia?
    - mLuby 5y ago
      "To err is human; to forgive, divine." As is obvious from the attitudes in this thread, legally enforced amnesia is the only practical solution.

GeoAtreides 5y ago

In Europe there are no such things as: 1) secret trials (there are in US[1]) 2) background checks (for the majority of jobs). Also, criminal records get erased after a period of time, depending on the crime committed. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intellig...

chrisseaton 5y ago
> no such things as secret trials ... criminal records get erased after a period of time So it becomes a secret that the trial happened? And I've been background checked for jobs I've had in Europe, even normal civilian jobs.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
dahfizz 5y ago
If court records are public, is there any technical reason a company could not scrape the records and perform background checks? Or is it a cultural difference that makes background checks less popular?
- awd 5y ago
  The various predecessors of the GDPR forbid it.
  - dahfizz 5y ago
    Forbid looking at court records? Or forbid monetizing it?