Is there anyone hears about "HireRight.com"?

Of course it is.

Complain to Congress. In the US, information gathered is the property of the entity that collects it. I understand that in the EU, information about a person is the property of that person. That seems better, but I'm sure clever US companies would find a way around similar rules. There's just too much money to be made selling people's personal details.

I've never had a prospective employer ask for medical details before or after making an offer, other than as they relate to my ability to do the job (e.g. can you lift up to 50lbs). They rightly consider that between me and the health insurance carrier.

S
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Stephen Sprunk      "Those people who think they know everything
CCIE #3723         are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
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Stephen Sprunk
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How else would I complain about the inappropriate post but to follow with a post??

How do you figure that? This group is comp.arch.embedded. People have argued that even *JOB POSTINGS* should be allowed here! Certainly it should be ok to discuss the process of getting a job in the embedded design field...

I don't give a *crap* what you like or dislike. That is my point. If you have something useful to add to the discussion, *and* wish to comment on a top poster, I don't have an issue with that. But to chime in with a "holier than thou", "top posting is bad" comment is pointless and distracting to reading a thread... yes, even more distracting than top posting.

I will try to refrain from commenting further on the top posting comments and return you to your previously scheduled thread. :^)

Reply to
rickman

That is evident. And yet consideration for others is the essence of civilisation. Welcome to my bozo bin. You're in lousy company.

--
Richard Heathfield
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29/7/1999
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Reply to
Richard Heathfield

I wish I thought that would make a difference. Corporations have so much more leverage with even *elected* government officials. So many people are ignorant of the things that the government allows and how companies get them to pass legislation not in the citizens best interest. But I may take this up. It is easy enough to write an email if you can get an email address for anyone in the Capitol.

The company was Tellabs and they wanted to to give permission to investigate my personal background, finances, job history and medical history; all before I even interviewed! As an engineer in the defence sector I am used to this sort of scrutiny by the Federal government, but even *they* have never asked to investigate my medical history!!!

To be honest, I don't even get the personal background or finances. Sure there may be a one in 100,000 chance that if I have a debt problem that it will affect my work. But wouldn't that show up in my work history? Same with personal background. Do they really think that my marriages or family are going to impact my work in ways that won't show up in my work records?

I don't cave in for this kind of stuff. I am sure it has cost me a job offer here or there, but I feel it is important to give feedback to employers about where the line is drawn by employees.

Reply to
rickman

However, this is cross-posted to comp.lang.c++, and top-posting is explicitly disallowed here.

formatting link

Reply to
red floyd

here.http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/how-to-post.html#faq-5.4

Yes, I am sure I over reacted just by saying anything at all. The complaining about top posting kinda bugs me. When I see a message that polutes the thread by not having any useful content just to correct someone, it really bugs me. I guess I need to keep it to myself, but then again, maybe CB should have replied in just the group where it is explicitly disallowed.

Sorry if I offended anyone, even the ones I probably intended to offend when I did the offending. :^)

Oh, and please don't ever send me an email asking me to not top post... You won't like the response. ;^)

Reply to
rickman

How can HE complain about the inappropriate post but to follow with a post?

Yet you think we should care what you like or dislike.

What was your useful addition?

Brian

Reply to
Default User

here.http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/how-to-post.html#faq-5.4- Hide quoted text -

I wish they would add "pedantic netiquette enforcement" to that list. You can always reply to the author instead of adding one more off- topic post to a thread.

Reply to
dave_mikesell

Countries differ. In Britian if you go for a job through an agency you can be expected to be asked national insurance number, date of birth for certain, dates of past jobs, even medical history. If someone wants to make a stand against this then I am not against it. In fact I would root for him. But the average person just wants to feed his family.

Reply to
Malcolm McLean

So why are you adding one more?

Brian

Reply to
Default User

Why are *you* adding one more?

Reply to
Kenny McCormack

In article , Malcolm McLean wrote: ...

No, you've got that wrong. The average person just wants to put food on his family.

Reply to
Kenny McCormack

In the banking world, you'd never get a job. Current anti-fraud legislation in the EU and US /requires/ your prospective employer to carry out a background check before hiring you.

I suspect if you read the small print you'd find out you could be fired w/s comp if the check failed but same diff, effectively.

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Mark McIntyre

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. 
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Mark McIntyre

(groups trimmed - don't have time to read the rest)

Agree 100% - Although freelance, would never agree to give what I consider personal information to gain employment, submit to drug tests, credit checks etc etc, even if it means not getting the job. What the company is effectively saying is that they don't trust you, so would you really want to work for them anyway ?.

All this sort of thing is starting to be a big issue in the uk, where there are cameras at every street corner, kids are being fingerprinted in schools (they say it's for roll call, school meals entitlement etc, but the hidden agenda being get them on the database as early as possible), biometric identity cards with just about every bit of personal information encoded into it and good only knows what else. The latest thing is loudspeakers on lamp posts, so that the camera operators can tell people off for dropping litter !. Pathetically sad, if it weren't all so dangerous. The worst part is that no-one seems to be worried by it all.

My parents generation, who fought a war to stop this kind of thin end of the wedge, must be collectively turning in their graves...

Chris

---------------------- Greenfield Designs Ltd Electronic and Embedded System Design Oxford, England (44) 1865 750 681

Reply to
ChrisQuayle

Thank you for your request to be added to my killfile. Your application has been received and approved. I look forward to ignoring you further.

If you have any other requests, please don't bother. I won't see them.

*plonk*

sherm--

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Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net
Reply to
Sherm Pendley

[snip]

When I first saw the original article in this thread, I assumed it was yet another advertisement. (We get a lot of those; "I just found this wonderful site foobar.com; what do you think of it?", where the poster turns out to be the owner of the site.)

Since the original poster has been participating in the discussion, that would seem not to be the case. However, the entire discussion is blatantly off-topic in comp.lang.c, and I presume in comp.lang.c++ and comp.arch.embedded as well. There are probably other newsgroups where this would be topical, and where you could find posters who actually know something about the question. I urge anyone who wants to continue discussing this to find an appropriate newsgroup and take the discussion there.

Followups redirected.

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Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  
San Diego Supercomputer Center               
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Reply to
Keith Thompson

Minor point - all this hoofaraw about my prodding is top-posted.

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Reply to
CBFalconer

My employment contract says that I may be required to handle sensitive material and that, should that occur, my continued employment is conditional on my passing any required background checks. If all (or even most) of the work I do required them, background checks would probably have been made a condition of the job offer. If the hiring process is fairly long, it would even make sense to start any required background checks along with later rounds of interviewing so they're finished before the final job offer is made.

All of these possibilities are still a long way from the OP's description of being asked for background information *before the first interview*.

dave

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Dave Vandervies                                  dj3vande@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
"Okay, if you don't see a need for them, great! Do whatever you do, without
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Reply to
Dave Vandervies

That is not the same thing as before making you a conditional offer which is what makes sense to me.

Most places you can be fired without cause anyway. Job offers typically don't have small print, but when you are hired the no- disclosure/invention agreement can cover this too. But does anyone really expect to be kept on the payroll if they are not suitable for the job? I think we are just talking about *when* the background check is to be done.

It is really a matter of safety for the company. If they don't like you before the interview, it is a lot harder for you to make trouble. After offering a job you have more possibilities and after being actually hired you can really give them trouble. But many states make it hard to sue an employer for letting you go regardless. They can really only be sued if they say bad things about you.

Reply to
rickman

Why would a company need to know your *medical* history? The rest of the info is standard issue on the resume (CV). I am not so familiar with the NI number. If it is used like the SS number here, it is actually illegal to require you to give it out. They used to use the SS number as your drivers license number in Virginia, but they stopped that when identity theft became and issue and they had always given you an opt out where they would make up a number for you.

I *know* I am not the average person. I am single and can afford to be unemployed, both by not having dependants and by having plenty of reserves. Regardless, there are lots of jobs and I think it is importan to not give up rights of privacy and the ability to dispute an erroneous report. When they get this report before they even call you in for an interview, you will never have a chance to even know that was why you were not called in.

Reply to
rickman

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