Consent comes before the search
For employment screening, the FCRA requires a clear standalone written disclosure and the applicant's written authorization before a report is requested. Burying it in an application packet does not satisfy the requirement, and courts have said so repeatedly.
Tenant screening, insurance underwriting, and credit decisions each carry their own permissible-purpose requirements. The common thread: you must be able to state, on the record, why you were entitled to the information.
What a real screening check pulls from
A defensible check is built from primary sources rather than aggregated scrapes of unknown vintage.
- Federal and state court records, including civil and criminal dockets.
- Bankruptcy, lien, and judgment filings.
- Regulatory and licensing databases relevant to the role.
- Federal exclusion and sanctions lists.
- Verified identity information tying the records to the right person.
- Authenticated firsthand reports that survived human review.
Adverse action is a process, not a rejection email
If a report contributes to a negative decision, the FCRA requires a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of rights, a reasonable waiting period for the person to respond, and then a final adverse action notice.
Skipping the middle step is the single most common screening violation. The waiting period exists so a person can correct a mistake before it costs them the job or the apartment.
Human review is the difference
Automated matching produces false positives, and false positives on a criminal record are catastrophic for the person on the other end. Every finding on a Hub or Dub report is reviewed by a human investigator against the source document, and anything that cannot be tied to the correct verified identity is rejected.
Screening access is limited to verified HOD Pro+ business accounts with a certified permissible purpose recorded at the time of the request.