Kategorie: English

Background checks are usually considered uncomfortable. The person being checked will often feel intruded upon or mistrusted. Despite that feeling of being uncomfortable it is largely accepted as a necessary evil. After all, who wouldn’t rather have background checks done for people who work with children, for example?

The legal background varies greatly from country to country. In America for example, very nearly everyone can conduct a background check on someone if they have the necessary information. In the UK on the other hand, the person being checked needs to give permission and the check is then being done by a government agency.

Now, in what kind of situation are background checks common? Many countries require them for people who want to work with children. Banks and larger companies like to know if their employees have a criminal background as well, before employing them. However, background checks aren’t just done on potential employees, but also on, for example, new business partners. Business partner finance checks have a very obvious purpose-to give information about whether or not the potential partner is lucid and therefore a viable partner.

There are several kinds of different background checks-some are really more identity checks, while others give a full scale criminal record, credit check and a list of former residences. In most cases, someone that requests such a check will do so with a certain intention and therefore only check certain things. Typically, it’s governments that will perform more in-depth searches into potential employees or persons of interest.

A bank’s interest into potential clients is equally obvious-it will perform individual credit checks to see if someone is eligible for credit or an account. The reason to do this needs no elaboration-a bank cannot simply give credit to anyone, they first need to see if the person can be trusted with the responsibility.

As far as performing the actual checks goes, they can be done by several parties, for example background check companies, the government, a government backed organisation, or the police. Background check companies will need to be certified and adhere to a lot of rules and regulations concerning the dealing with personal information. Respecting privacy while performing these checks is an essential checkmark in these situations and one of the few comforts possible for people that feel intruded upon by the checks. The companies are usually liable for leaked or misused information and will never give the information to anyone not allowed access to them.

A panic or safe room is something most of us only know from movies or what we imagine is located under the White House in Washington. That is, of course, most likely true. However, panic or safe rooms aren’t exclusive to the President of the United States of America. They serve a variety of purposes, the primary one revealed in the name itself ‘Safe Room’. Generally, it’s a safe-like room that can be locked from the inside only, for protection purposes. There are several variations of the theme, though the ones displayed in the media are usually fairly unrealistic. While it isn’t impossible to have, for example, a room that locks down completely on the press of a button, it is incredibly impractical. More common are underground rooms with one or two possible exits that are closed mechanically.

A good safe room will have necessary facilities, water and rations as well as a phone connection outside. Similar to a bunker, they can be used to protect oneself from threats like robbers, kidnappers, terrorists or the like. While they don’t come as standard equipment with most houses, they are certainly popular in certain circles, for example with politicians, celebrities, HNWI´s and UHNWI´s.

Large organisations like the U.N. have panic rooms too, in case of, for example, a terrorist attack, for the protection of the visitors. While the benefits of a safe room seem relatively self-explanatory, there are certainly drawbacks as well. First of all, the costs of having one installed, even if there is sufficient space, can be incredibly high, since it requires special planning permission, and resources.

Generally these rooms are built to be very sturdy and strong, able to withstand a theoretical attempted break-in. Ventilation, storage and facilities have to be planned and accounted for, upping the price of construction even further. In today’s day and age, this kind of bunker-like room is hardly necessary for an every-day home, panic rooms have a long history. During the Second World War, a variation of them, bunkers, were very, very common and used during bomb alarms. They were only used for short time stays until the alarm and immediate threat was over. As such, they were much simpler and often intended for use by several people at once.

Modern panic rooms can usually hold between one person and a family, as they are more built to last for time rather than space, for example until help arrives in the form of police. These rooms often have an actual safe in them as well so that small items of value can be taken to safety as well.