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Tangentially related -- My wife recently had to provide her SSN, DoB and her fingerprint scanned by a third-party company [https://www.printscan.com/about-us/ h

Tangentially related -- My wife recently had to provide her SSN, DoB and her fingerprint scanned by a third-party company [https://www.printscan.com/about-us/ https://www.printscan.com/about-us/], which is "owned, and operated by active and retired Law Enforcement Officers". We both felt really uncomfortable providing such sensitive information to a third party company, but had no choice because Florida board of medicine [https://flboardofmedicine.gov/ https://flboardofmedicine.gov/] uses PrintScan as a partner to do background checks. The fee was $125 for fingerprint scanning at one of their locations. According to that company's 'About Us' page, "PrintScan’s certified fingerprint technicians undergo extensive background checks before being cleared with the FBI, NYS Department of Criminal Justice Services, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and Homeland Security." I looked up on the FBI website to see if they provide similar background check service, and sure they do for $18! I have a hard time figuring out why FL board of medicine uses a third party service instead of FBI to do background checks, and also wondered why shouldn't FBI background check be enough/sufficient for criminal activity (i.e. don't states share their criminal records with FBI?). All of this is to say that the existence of companies like PrintScan--and the fact that one of the state governments uses it--is definitely concerning to me.

nikanj 4y ago
Why? Because corruption
caseysoftware 4y ago
I used to work with the FBI fingerprint system IAFIS. It was a very complete system at the time and used in many situations for background checks for everything from LEOs to day care centers for cheap. We also had hard requirements around 99% of responses had to come back within 10 minutes. Anyway, that's changed quite a bit the last few years.. More and more State & Local stopped participating in the system - https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2021/12/09/fbi-police-shooting-data/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2021/12/09/fbi-poli... - so huge swathes of data just isn't available anymore. Then more DAs are choosing to prosecute fewer crimes and negotiating down serious crimes that would trigger alerts (usually felonies) to lesser crimes so the data that is there may not be representative of the situation. And finally, the overall crime statistics are being characterized as "racist" so the FBI is getting more cautious about what they release and how. So.. less data, incomplete/wrong data, and less access to the data. All of those mean "competitors" have room to operate.
- noodlesUK 4y ago
  One thing I’m not very happy about is that in the US, in order to get a background check of any kind, you need to get fingerprinted and have those prints enrolled in the FBI’s database regardless of if a match comes up. In many other countries, a background check is just querying the national criminal record database for your identity, which seems much more proportionate for most employment based background checks. I’m not thrilled about being enrolled in a fingerprint database because latent prints exist and are so inaccurate.
  - xyzzyz 4y ago
    I had background checks done on me by my previous employers, but none of them asked me for fingerprints.
    - mistrial9 4y ago
      here they go for the credit record right away I think
  - reaperducer 4y ago
    in the US, in order to get a background check of any kind, you need to get fingerprinted This is false. I've had my background checked at least a dozen times. Most recently, just this past October, and I have never given my fingerprints to anyone.
    - noodlesUK 4y ago
      You are correct. What I meant was a government issued/recognized background check.
      - xyzzyz 4y ago
        The government background check for buying firearms does not involve fingerprints either.
user3939382 4y ago
> PrintScan’s certified fingerprint technicians undergo extensive background checks Uh huh. Just like these guys, right? "NSA staff used spy tools on spouses, ex-lovers: watchdog" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-surveillance-watchdog-idUSBRE98Q14G20130927 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-surveillance-watchdog... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOVEINT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOVEINT
rurp 4y ago
I don't think there is any reason for involving a private company, aside from the kickback/corruption ones. I've had to get fingerprinted and background checked for several jobs in different states and all were done through the local police department.

nikanj 4y ago

Why? Because corruption

caseysoftware 4y ago

I used to work with the FBI fingerprint system IAFIS. It was a very complete system at the time and used in many situations for background checks for everything from LEOs to day care centers for cheap. We also had hard requirements around 99% of responses had to come back within 10 minutes. Anyway, that's changed quite a bit the last few years.. More and more State & Local stopped participating in the system - https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2021/12/09/fbi-police-shooting-data/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2021/12/09/fbi-poli... - so huge swathes of data just isn't available anymore. Then more DAs are choosing to prosecute fewer crimes and negotiating down serious crimes that would trigger alerts (usually felonies) to lesser crimes so the data that is there may not be representative of the situation. And finally, the overall crime statistics are being characterized as "racist" so the FBI is getting more cautious about what they release and how. So.. less data, incomplete/wrong data, and less access to the data. All of those mean "competitors" have room to operate.

noodlesUK 4y ago
One thing I’m not very happy about is that in the US, in order to get a background check of any kind, you need to get fingerprinted and have those prints enrolled in the FBI’s database regardless of if a match comes up. In many other countries, a background check is just querying the national criminal record database for your identity, which seems much more proportionate for most employment based background checks. I’m not thrilled about being enrolled in a fingerprint database because latent prints exist and are so inaccurate.
- xyzzyz 4y ago
  I had background checks done on me by my previous employers, but none of them asked me for fingerprints.
  - mistrial9 4y ago
    here they go for the credit record right away I think
- reaperducer 4y ago
  in the US, in order to get a background check of any kind, you need to get fingerprinted This is false. I've had my background checked at least a dozen times. Most recently, just this past October, and I have never given my fingerprints to anyone.
  - noodlesUK 4y ago
    You are correct. What I meant was a government issued/recognized background check.
    - xyzzyz 4y ago
      The government background check for buying firearms does not involve fingerprints either.

user3939382 4y ago

> PrintScan’s certified fingerprint technicians undergo extensive background checks Uh huh. Just like these guys, right? "NSA staff used spy tools on spouses, ex-lovers: watchdog" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-surveillance-watchdog-idUSBRE98Q14G20130927 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-surveillance-watchdog... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOVEINT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOVEINT

rurp 4y ago

I don't think there is any reason for involving a private company, aside from the kickback/corruption ones. I've had to get fingerprinted and background checked for several jobs in different states and all were done through the local police department.