This is amost unimaginable in Europe: getting criminal records online for some bucks!
A few weeks ago, RapSheets.com began selling national criminal background checks for $20 to $30 a pop. The tiny Tennessee firm claims its new criminal directory is the most comprehensive on the Internet, encompassing 50 million criminal records in 36 states (it includes Virginia but not Maryland or the District).
In addition to criminal files, all sorts of records -- bankruptcies, divorces and civil lawsuits -- are moving online into interconnected databases that allow searching in ways never before possible.
While this may be a boon for employers, privacy advocates worry that law and public policy in the United States are failing to keep up with technology advances in order to adequately protect people from mistakes and misuse.
I checked RapSheets.com and here is what they say:
Now, with the dawn of the new millennium, The Daily News launches Rapsheets.com, offering low-cost, instant criminal records searches from 45 state and county jurisdictions. All of the records in Rapsheets.com's databases are housed in our own data center.
You can become member for $14.95 per month or perform a search for $5.95 as a non-member.
Qualified users can get INSTANT RESULTS from our private database of criminal records for NO MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION fee - just a $5.95 fee per name, per state or county searched.(Higher fee for National Criminal Index Search).
You can even call them toll-free.
What do you think of this service? Would you spend money to know the past of a potential employee? Or your own neighbor?
Source: Leslie Walker, The Washington Post, May 23, 2002
5:09:28 PM
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