A wealth of case law has been amassed to interpret the FCRA (and California's ICRAA). In addition, the EEOC guidance has grown in recent years. These important restrictions serve as the boundary lines to which our service was designed to fully confirm.
To ensure this compliance, our company was built under the supervision of both internal and external counsel. Existing legal precedent and best practices were built into the eLuminate framework.
The result is a system designed to be used in an employment context. That means it is designed to enable you to take adverse actions in a lawful manner, where appropriate.
You will find below additional information on these laws along with resources to facilitate an improved understanding of their implication to your organization and its employees.
Fair Credit Reporting Act
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law designed to (1) prevent the misuse of sensitive consumer report information by limiting recipients to those who have a legitimate need for it; (2) improve the accuracy and integrity of consumer reports; and (3) promote the efficiency of the nation’s banking and consumer credit systems. It requires all consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) to adopt reasonable procedures for providing information that bears on a person’s ability to obtain/maintain insurance and employment. The FCRA also imposes requirements on users of consumer reports, including the obligation to provide adverse action notices in certain circumstances. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other regulators actively enforce the FCRA.
eLUMINATE delivers Adverse Action notifications. These alerts are, in most contexts, consumer reports that have the potential to adversely affect the employment status of certain employees, such as a childcare worker recently convicted of assault on a child or a driver whose license has been suspended as a result of a second DUI conviction.
Following are links to a series of resources from the FTC that can be consulted to assess the obligations surrounding the disclosure and use of consumer reports.
Governmental Publications for Employers
- Background Checks: What Employers Need to Know
- Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to Know
- Background Screening Reports and the FCRA
- Consumer Reports: What Insurers Need to Know
- Using Consumer Reports for Credit Decisions
- Disposing of Consumer Report Information
- Evergreen Guidance
Governmental Publications for Consumers
- A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (En Español)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Information for Consumers
- If you believe you are the victim of identity theft, you may want to review the FTC’s publication “Remedying the Effects of Identity Theft.”
How to Request and Dispute a Consumer Report with us
To help us process your request and/or investigate your dispute as quickly as possible, please click on the appropriate button below and follow the instructions. In order to avoid any delays, please read all of the instructions before proceeding.
Anti-Discrimination Laws
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency tasked with enforcing employees’ federal rights against discrimination in the workforce under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Criminal record information obtained from us should only be obtained when the information relates to the employee’s job duties. Following are links to a series of resources from the EEOC that can be consulted to assess the obligations surrounding the disclosure and use of criminal record information.
- Background Checks: What Employers Need to Know (joint publication between EEOC and FTC)
- EEOC Enforcement Guidance: Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions
- What You Should Know About the EEOC and Arrest and Conviction Records
Driver’s Privacy Protection Act
The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) is a federal law designed to protect the privacy of motorists’ personal information (PII) from unauthorized disclosure. The DPPA only allows certain DMV agencies to release PII (e.g., name and address) to organizations that have permissible use(s) for the protected data. Some states have enacted similar laws that restrict disclosure of motorists’ PII. eLUMINATE obtains PII from numerous DMV agencies related to serious traffic crimes in support of its eLumiante service. eLUMINATE maintains motorists’ PII to ensure that all records are:
- Clearly identified in our source management system;
- Contain a compulsory data field that indicates the specific use restrictions;
- Housed in databases that employ full disk encryption and active logging;
- Available only to eLUMINATE employees with a documented need-to-know; and
- Correctly cataloged and appropriately transfer-restricted.
eLUMINATE Policies and Terms of Use
Below are a few of the policies in place to ensure eLUMINATE’s adherence with its legal obligations. In addition, legal terms of use for our services and website are listed below.