
Show HN: Checkr.io – API for background checks - dyanisse
https://checkr.io/free-background-check
======
phillmv
Talk about a great way to phish any unsuspecting saps who might try out the
service.

Also, I'm vaguely horrified at the notion that background checks might become
standard even for 'sharing economy' gigs. Ah, well, you see, your pot charge
disqualifies you from picking up my laundry.

~~~
timjahn
Would you ever want a stranger driving you home who wasn't background checked
in some way?

I wouldn't.

~~~
phillmv
I have the privilege of being a white male who lives in a safe city and thus
rarely feels threatened.

So, it's not something I think about. What's the threat model? They're going
to case your house and rob you at some point in the future?

In an ideal world, that sounds plausible. Let's keep child molesters away from
child care! Who can disagree with that?

But in practice, it means that all offenders are permanent second class
citizens barred from non-marginal employment opportunities.

It's extremely pernicious, and you don't have to exaggerate anything to reach
slippery slopes. Because there is no discretion in the system, anyone remotely
tagged by law enforcement can be screwed by this.

Recently here in Canada it turns out that non-offense data was turning up in
background checks. So, some guy was in the process of becoming a nurse, iirc,
but was not allowed to graduate - because his neighbour five years ago was a
drug dealer. That's it. The background check revealed that he was asked some
questions and that's that. Four years of tuition down the drain.

If you can never find a way to reasonably support yourself, regardless of how
much you've turned your life around, then we've created a self fulfilling
prophesy in terms of recidivism rates.

Keep in mind we're talking about _the sharing economy_ , which almost by
definition are going to be bottom of the barrel 'gigs' to begin with.

Does it matter if person folding your laundry got into a drunken fight when
they were 19? Not really.

~~~
timjahn
"Does it matter if person folding your laundry got into a drunken fight when
they were 19? Not really."

No. It doesn't.

Does it matter if a person with a history of DUIs (or even ONE) drives me for
Lyft? Yes.

Does it matter if a person with a history of armed robbery or home invasion
delivers groceries to my house for Instacart? Yes.

~~~
the_ancient
Why? Are they Drunk when they pick you up? If not why does not matter if they
were drunk 5 years ago, or 1 day ago, they are not drunk at the moment so that
is all that should concern you.

I see you have a huge amount of faith in the legal system... That is sad

~~~
dyanisse
Hi, I am the cofounder and I want to jump in. The Fair Credit Reporting Act
regulates the background screening industry and gives rights to consumers. We
cannot disclose offenses older than 7 years old.
[https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/pdf-0096-fair-
credit-r...](https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/pdf-0096-fair-credit-
reporting-act.pdf)

~~~
maresca
I see nothing in there having to do with criminal charges. Only credit and
financial records. Am I missing something?

~~~
dyanisse
Yes the FCRA regulates consumer reports and background checks are consumer
reports even if they are not mentioned in the text.
[https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0157-employment-
backgr...](https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0157-employment-background-
checks) Please speak to a lawyer before making false statements.

~~~
the_ancient
Actually it appears we are both right.

Companies such as yours are prohibited from disclosing it because you are
classified as "consumer reporting agency" however the disclosure of criminal
records by non-consumer reporting agencies is not limited to 7 years.

------
dyanisse
My friend and I hacked an API to run background checks. We wanted to show it
to the HN community and get your feedback on it. You can run 1 background
check on yourself for free.

~~~
p8952
Seems to require a SSN, so I assume it's only good in the US?

~~~
dyanisse
Yes, only in the US for now.

------
binaryorganic
Previous address history was pretty rough (it listed the same address twice as
consecutive residences, put me in a city I'd never lived in, and got most of
the dates wrong).

That being said, I'm into it. Those arguing about it's usefulness seem either
oblivious to, or annoyed by, the vast number of background checks that are run
in this country every day.

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kbar13
Without knowing too much about this project (which looks pretty cool), I don't
think it's a good idea to put in your SSN.

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nycmattw
I'm probably not the only one but I'd feel uncomfortable putting my SSN in a
site that just released.

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cridenour
I prefer the reverse of this - [1]Repp. You confirm your own background and
provide it to companies.

[1] [https://myrepp.com/](https://myrepp.com/)

~~~
fiatjaf
I love the idea. Always thought about it. Is this working? Is there anyone
using it?

~~~
cridenour
I believe so! I haven't talked with them for a while but I believe they are
still growing.

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integraton
What are the exact sources of some of this data, like SSN validation, address
history, criminal searches, motor vehicle reports?

~~~
mhluongo
I'd like to know this as well- I was doing some research into it recently for
KYC purposes.

~~~
dyanisse
Hi,

The sources are the 3 credit bureaus for SSN, direct access to DMVs for MVR,
and different databases and sources for criminal data.

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nulagrithom
The fear of the SSN input in the comments is interesting. That was my knee-
jerk reaction as well.

I'm not saying the fear is unwarranted, but do you know where your employer is
inputting your SSN and where they keep it? How safe do you think your personal
data is?

I built an employment application 'web app' for a job not too long ago. It was
_terrible_ , and against all my objections, we ended up asking for the
applicants SSN. It certainly wasn't secure by any stretch of the imagination,
and I cringe a little every time I see an application come in. I'm sure this
sort of thing happens daily.

Anyway, I went ahead and put my SSN in to Checkr. It came up with an address
I've never lived at, next to 3 addresses I actually have lived at. Not sure
what that's about.

~~~
koryteg
if OP open sourced the code I would feel more comfortable about it. its weird
that the first thought of hesitation was "that's weird they didn't do any
customization to bootstrap" then this:
[http://builtwith.com/?https%3a%2f%2fcheckr.io%2f](http://builtwith.com/?https%3a%2f%2fcheckr.io%2f)

I dont see any backend language or framework. what does this mean?

~~~
danneu
It simply means there's no obvious fingerprint that builtwith.com was able to
detect.

For example, the default Express app contains `X-Powered-By: Express` in the
response header. Ruby on Rails is usually sniffed by its predictable cookie
signature.

You gain nothing from broadcasting your back-end stack to the world.

------
scolson
Like someone else pointed out, it would be ideal to be able to delete reports
(or at a minimum ssn information).

The site looks nice and clean. After running a report on myself, I noticed it
said for a minute or so that my ssn was incorrect before it changed to stating
it was cleared.

Also, while the national check for me came back clear (as expected), I was
curious if that was literally all the report said. I would love to see more
detailed reporting underlying the results. Obviously if it doesn't say
anything more than "clear" or "no results" or something, then this probably
wouldn't be useful.

Pricing-wise, I think it is somewhat fair and were I a bigger company with an
HR group, you would be a solid candidate as a vendor.

~~~
dyanisse
please email daniel at checkr.io and we will delete your SSN and personal
data.

This is a light version of a background check (since we have to pay for it).
Our pricing page references packages with extensive screenings and results.

~~~
scolson
Isn't the point of the test to get exactly what I can expect as a result as a
paying customer? Otherwise, what am I really validating?

I will happily email daniel for deleting the personal data. While that works
well for a HN comment thread, I still think it shouldn't require interaction
on your part.

~~~
dyanisse
thanks for your feedback, we will add the ability to delete an account and all
related data in our product.

------
aioprisan
Also, why does the GitHub login require full access to personal user data?

"This application will be able to read and write all user data. This includes
the following: Private email addresses Profile information Followers"

------
_wmd
This is a genuinely hard problem and it's great to see new companies taking it
on. Unfortunately this particular instance is close to useless - US only is a
non starter, it's why this stuff is hard in the first place.

Dealing with country-specific services is as good as aggregating relevant
databases directly.

I'd pay good money for a single API that covered most of the western world,
and seamlessly integrated external services (e.g. Equifax in the UK)

~~~
apierre
I agree with you but I am wondering how would that work on a country specific
level. Each country in Europe has their own privacy laws when it comes to
query these kind of databases. Not to mention the EU adding another layer in
the process.

Take for instance the credit scoring system. There is no such thing as Expedia
or privately maintained credit scoring system outside the UK. In France, the
Bank of France maintains files which are only available to financial
institutions holding a licence.

Another example, in the UK, the sex offenders register is only available
through the police, in other countries, there have been citizen initiatives to
create such database for specific areas.

This kind of service is more realistic in the US as their SSN is the main ID
for background check.

------
sprite
I just ran one on myself. Turnaround time was 2 hours. It came up with a
ticket I got in 2009 for "Motor Vehicle Noise". I've had several speeding
tickets that didn't show up, so not sure how much I would trust the data from
this.

------
jacobsimon
I filed a report earlier this morning on myself with an incorrect SSN (off by
one digit). It came through with a 'clear' on SSN verification and background
check, but reported incorrect addresses. I think you guys should look into
this.

------
markbnj
Interesting idea, but like the others I have to say there is no way I am
entering my SSN into your site. I'm half convinced the fear is irrational, but
there it is.

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twodayslate
Not as instant as I would have hoped. I've been pending for a few minutes now

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spektom
You probably should have mentioned that the service is available only in the
US.

~~~
danielsamuels
Would be nice to be able to delete your account once you've registered and
found out that's the case.

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mrvladnov
This is great API, added it to the Mashape community for easy consumption ;)

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SimpleXYZ
So the premium TASKER plan is $25 once for unlimited requests?

~~~
bmelton
Unlimited counties, not requests. I assume that would be limited to one
request per county.

~~~
dyanisse
Sorry if this is not clear on the pricing page. We will make updates. The
pricing is for 1 report on 1 person. Unlimited county searches in the counties
where the person lived in the last 7 years.

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idbehold
Anyone know what tool they use to generate their API docs?

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ctz
s/mininum/minimum/ on the signup page.

