Also in the social media arena, or at least with mobile applications, the Federal Trade Commission is warning the marketers of six mobile applications that provide background screening that, if they have reason to believe the background reports they provide are being used for employment screening, housing, credit, or other similar purposes, they must comply with Fair Credit Reporting Act provisions.
According to the FTC, some of the applications include criminal record histories, which bear on an individual's character and general reputation, and are precisely the type of information that is typically used in employment and tenant screening. “Under the FCRA,” a press release yesterday said, “operations that assemble or evaluate information to provide to third parties qualify as consumer reporting agencies, or CRAs, and mobile apps that supply such information may also qualify as CRAs under the Act. CRAs must take reasonable steps to ensure the user of each report has a 'permissible purpose' to use the report; take reasonable steps to ensure the maximum possible accuracy of the information conveyed in its reports; and provide users of its reports with information about their obligations under the FCRA….”
Companies receiving letters are Everify, Inc., marketer of the Police Records app, InfoPay, Inc., marketer of the Criminal Pages app, and Intelligator, Inc., marketer of Background Checks, Criminal Records Search, Investigate and Locate Anyone, and People Search and Investigator apps.
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