A background check can consist of information from a wide variety of sources and usually includes public records maintained by local, state, and federal governments. Various levels of government keep track of such things as criminal records, driving history, vehicle registrations, workers' compensation history, military service records, property ownership, and court cases in which you may have been a party. If you have been incarcerated, whether in county jail, state prison, or a federal penitentiary, that information will probably be discovered as part of the background check process. Local government records also include the academic history of most Americans, since most of us attend public schools.

It would be a mistake, however, to assume that a personal background check is limited to information assembled by the government. Private companies and individuals can also be involved. Credit bureaus, for example, are private corporations that specialize in tracking how you meet your financial obligations. In the United States, three such companies maintain statistics about how much you owe and whether you pay your bills on time; these records also indicate bankruptcies and reveal whether you have been evicted. Unlike other kinds of records, however, your credit history typically only provides information about the past seven years. Information older than that, except for bankruptcies, which stay on your record for ten years, is discarded.

A thorough pre-employment background check for a security clearance may also include a close look into your personal life. Through such techniques as interviewing your neighbors and checking your personal and character references, employers hope to identify those individuals who are more likely to be hard-working and trustworthy. Background checks in the digital age may also include internet searches using your name or address, and sometimes encompass specific efforts to locate information about you on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Since background checks have become so commonplace, it has become increasingly more practical to run a background check on yourself. Having a background check in hand can be useful in a number of different situations. When searching for a job, the applicant who can provide this information will have an advantage, appearing to be a forward-thinking, responsible individual. Purchased background checks can also be shown to loan officers when you are trying to secure a new mortgage or refinance your home. Finally, prospective renters will be more likely to be offered a lease when they have a background check in hand to show to a landlord.

In today’s world, all kinds of information can be found on almost anyone with a few simple clicks of a mouse. This may be considered an invasion of privacy by many, but it is unfortunately the world we live in today. Whether we like it or not, the kind of information that has been compiled on all of us can be used by others to shape our daily lives. One source of information that can have a significant impact is the information that can be found on a person by performing a background check. You need to be aware of this, and you should also take precautions.

Background checks can be ran by many different entities for many different reasons that can affect your livelihood. One situation in which you will definitely experience background screening is when you apply for employment. Information that is likely to come up in this background check can include your employment history and your criminal history. Your employer will then use this information to help make the decision of whether or not to hire you. Even if you are already employed, an employer may still run a background check on you sometime during your employment. The information found in the background report may then be used as a reason to terminate you.

Many other people use background checks as well. For example, landlords often run background checks on potential tenants. This can be used as a means of keeping criminals out of their property and to check to see if a tenant is likely pay his or her rent on time. This kind of information can even affect a person’s love life. Certain websites now suggest that a person perform a background check on a potential mate before even accepting the first date.

What’s even worse is this information could actually be completely inaccurate. Human error is always a big risk when it comes to record keeping. Your information could be inaccurate due to the fact you share the same name with someone else. Your information may have not been updated after parts of your criminal record have been expunged. The information may reflect the deeds of someone who has stolen your identity. Perhaps, even a simple missed keystroke could have a disastrous impact on your record.

Thankfully, there is a way to combat these possibilities. Simply have a personal background check performed on you. Once you receive the information from the background check, you can carefully review it for errors. If you do find any, you can act to correct them. It will certainly be worth it to make sure you are being judged fairly by others whenever they perform a check on you.  Once you have reviewed your background check form accuracy, you can then re-purpose the same background check and share it with potential employers, landlords, loan officers, volunteer organizations, colleges/universities or whomever you choose.

A California state senator has introduced a bill this week to prohibit an employer from firing a worker who legally smokes marijuana while not at work. California's current laws allow legal use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Democratic State Senator Mark Leno, who represents a district that includes Marin County, parts of Sonoma County and parts of San Francisco, proposed the bill, which would also prohibit an employer from using the same fact of legal marijuana use not to hire a job applicant.

In 2007, Sen. Leno had proposed a bill similar to this one. The legislature at that time passed the bill, but then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill. According to Leno, the bill establishes a right to work for a person who makes proper legal use of marijuana, and he is surprised that anyone may object to that fact.

In 1996, a ballot measure was approved by the residents of California to legalize the medical use of marijuana for those people who qualify. But, in 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that there was nothing in that measure or the subsequent medical marijuana laws that would stop employers from firing a user of medical marijuana because of a positive test for marijuana. In other words, a worker who legally used pot could be fired for testing positive for pot. Leno says that California voters never meant for the medical marijuana measure to apply just to the unemployed.

Within Leno's new bill, safety-sensitive jobs are exempted from this employer prohibition. Nurses, doctors, heavy equipment operators and school bus drivers are examples of those who perform jobs that are safety-sensitive and whose job performance could be adversely affected by impairment of any kind.

According to the bill, an employer could still fire an employee who used marijuana during work hours or at work, or who was at work under the influence of marijuana.

The California Chamber of Commerce has opposed the bill proposed by Sen. Leno in 2007, but a Chamber spokeswoman said that the current bill had not been examined by the Chamber yet. The Chamber opposed last year's Proposition 19, a statewide ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana use, partially in the belief that the measure would prohibit employers from firing a worker who was smoking pot at work or who was under the influence of pot while at work. The supporters of Proposition 19 denied that claim.

Pursuing a career these days puts much more demand on job seekers than ever before. More and more businesses are including a prescreening test for drugs, for example, as a necessary part of the job application process. But now, you can submit your own clean report as a resume enhancement tool.

Employment has become contingent upon a negative drug test. Employers are concerned as to how those with a positive drug test report might perform on the job. By including your own clean report you will be setting your resume apart from the scores of others that the Human Resources Department must sift through just to identify a few good candidates.Statistics show that a worker who is an illicit-drug user is late for work more often, has more absences, is more likely to leave the workplace early due to illness, or just simply quits a job abruptly. This type of employee generally has moderate or even marginal job performance. With the flood of applicants in all areas of the marketplace, and with so few positions available, employers try to filter out potential problems and reduce liability. Consider the nightmare of an employer who thinks that he has found the perfect individual to fill a position, after a myriad of interviews, paperwork and background checks only to discover that the prescreening test results have come back positive. He has to be concerned not only about that employee, but about all of his other employees, were he to hire that individual. This is especially true if the job entails operating machinery of any kind. The time-consuming task of selection must begin again.

If, in your resume, you can provide proof of a clean drug report, your chances of obtaining an interview before other job seekers without such an assessment, are greater. It also saves much time and expense on the part of your prospective employer. An employer, seeing that you have taken the time and had the fore-thought to include your own clean test results, understands that you can be counted on to take initiative in the work environment as well.

To voluntarily take a drug test, without being sure it is even a requirement of the position desired, is a testament to your worthiness as an employee. It says you have neither weakness of the mind nor the body. Mybackgroundcheck.com tells you where you can find a testing facility nearest you, along with a complete background check, for a fee. Just answer a few simple questions to open an account. An employer can check the results right from your account, or get results in an email, if he prefers.