Legal Compliance

Legal compliance in the background screening industry is very important. The most prominent legislation involving background screening includes:

The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
The FCRA was enacted to protect the rights of individuals by promoting accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information obtained by Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRA). The original intent of the FCRA was to govern the activities of the major credit bureaus in this country that gather and provide financial information about individuals - such as their credit rating and Bankruptcy History. The FCRA was later amended to include Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies such as USAFact that perform pre-employment screening services.
The essence of the FCRA is to ensure organizations receive permission from the candidate before running a background report and providing the candidate a copy of the background report if they choose to take Adverse Action on the individual due to the contents of the report.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA)
FACTA extends the FCRA, providing more protection from identity theft and ensuring you the opportunity to dispute any erroneous data on your background screen report through sites like this. The FACTA also allows all consumers to receive one free credit report on themselves per year from each of the three credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax).

The Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA)
The DPPA was originally enacted in 1994 to protect the privacy of personal information assembled by State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMVs). The DPPA prohibits the release or use by any State DMV (or any officer, employee, or contractor thereof) of personal information about an individual obtained by the department in connection with a motor vehicle record to all unauthorized persons without a pre-determined permissible purpose. USAFact only obtains DMV records for the permissible purpose of pre-employment screening. We do not keep databases of this information or sell this information to any unauthorized party.

State Law Compliance
The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act stipulates that state law takes precedence over the FCRA if the law or civil code provides greater protection to the consumer. In most cases the state laws that apply to this condition in the FCRA involve the time period for which criminal conviction information can be reported. Other state laws include a modification of the Consumer Authorization Disclosure process.

Employment Drug Screening Compliance
USAFact is a certified member and is in compliance with the regulations published by the following organizations:

  • Substance Abuse Program Administrators Association (SAPAA)
  • Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association (DATIA)