With many recruiters and employers using the internet to learn more about job candidates, some are placing themselves in legal peril. If a recruiter or employer discovers a job candidate’s gender, race, nationality or age via an internet background check and does not hire that individual, the candidate might suspect that they’ve been discriminated against.  That’s why if a recruiter or employer wants to do a internet background check, they might be better off using a 3^rd party researcher. Here are some of the qualities you should look for in a researcher:

1. Recruiters and employers should try to find a researcher who has experience using the internet to do research on individuals. Although, the internet’s usage has increased over the past ten years, there are still many professionals who are internet illiterate even if they are able to research quite well using “traditional” tools such as the library.
2. The best researchers suited for doing online background checks are those who are able to take small amounts of information and “connect the dots.”  The internet is indeed a web of information, but when it comes to connecting that information, that’s a job best suited for human minds.  A good researcher will mine social networks, discussion forums as well as article distributors to find information on candidates to get a better picture of that individual.
3. And finally, recruiters and employers should search for recruiters who know when they need to rely on traditional methods for finding information.  Sometimes information about a job candidate simply is not on the internet and a phone call to a former employer will deliver a better result.