I have some extra time on my hands and feel like volunteering for something meaningful. There's an organization out here called Literary Services and I offer to teach math to a GED student. I go through 2 or 3 sessions of introductory stuff and then they put me on a list for when a prospective student comes up--so one student does and I agreed to meet him Thursday morning to evaluate and figure out a lesson plan. I get a email saying to fill out a survey for a background check--its from an organization named Sterling Volunteers and I google it and its legitimate. I begin to fill it out and they're asking for full name, SSN, b-date, gender, maybe 1 or 2 other things. I'm hesitant because I don't know how they will use this beyond this simple check for this Literary Service but I put it in and hit enter. This takes me to the next screen where they want my address, how long I lived there, etc. This crossed the line for me for some reason and I ended the session. I have nothing to hide viz. the background check. I just feel like its too invasive and who knows the security and what other purpose the data can be put to. Am i wrong? If I don't do it I can't volunteer for this place and maybe I'm just being problematic.
I don’t think you’re wrong for not wanting your information in yet another database that’ll be archived and accessed in some sort of hack at some point. But I don’t think that’s anything crazy for a background check. It’s standard operating procedure in anything I’ve ever filled out for a job that requires a background check. I guess the point would just be - how badly do you want to do this? The other thing is that all of this info of yours is probably out there in several places. What’s one more place? Lol.
Good post--I get the feeling this Literary Services has no idea of the type of security protocol the hired company uses nor would they take any responsibility if the data got hacked etc. After all, I volunteered it etc. This is slightly different than a job in that way. What u say--how bad I want it--damn man, who can tell what the right call is? I want to live a happy life--it would suck to get hacked but its nice to help someone. Maybe it works out maybe it doesnt. Fuck.
I'd be fine with the address history, it's all over the internet but I would have balked at the SSN request. I remember when Social Security cards had the legend "Not to be used for identification purposes" across the bottom.
They want to make sure you're not some perv with a perv record and they're doing their due diligence, but I draw the line at my SS #. I can't tell you how many times my vital info has been compromised through a medical practice. It's been years since I stopped providing it, it's a gateway to identify theft. As a matter of fact, I have free monitoring at the moment . . . AGAIN. Good on you for extending yoursef in your community, but yeah, SS# is a big fat no.
