Long story short: I was offered a role in a new company. It did not require a DBS nor was it in any regulated sectors. My conviction is spent and has been for years. Once I got into the onboarding process, a 'vetting' company contacted me wanting to know previous names/addresses etc. My name change was quite recent so I have not built up enough years with this new name to be able to circumvent these unfair questions. This could have led to the possibility of my previous identity being disclosed and it would not take long for them to find the odd internet story here or there, despite my best efforts at playing 'wack-a-mole' with Google. I assessed the risk as being too high so I withdrew. Thankfully I was able to keep my original job. Has anyone else had experience of these sorts of low-level vetting processes? Did your previous name come up? And did they then 'dig deeper' and pass on all this to the employer?

BTW - I know Unlock is doing its very best when it comes to lobbying government about the unfair and unjust impact of the google effect but now with AI turbocharging this whole arena and basically offering any HR team an extremely powerful, free background checker, the need for the ROA to be brought into the 21st Century - and applied without exception to these tech giants - is more pressing than ever.

RM

First may I say I have so much empathy for you having gone through this discrimination myself so many times. From my release to when I could officially say I am retired, I applied for over 2000 roles. Many I achieved interviews for, often receiving offers which only disappeared on disclosure.
Some roles I disclosed prior to the interview, so when the interview was confirmed I felt confident. Trouble was I believe this was either to (a) tick a box for some statistic, (b) they thought they could persuade HR my skills were deemed more important than "social opinion", (c) wanting info on my previous roles to help with their project issues, (d) voyeurism! Yes I believe that by the way the questions went.
Though I can say one bonus of now being retired is that i do not have to go through that process anymore. However, my volunteering attempts i.e. charity shops, also had to end; which caused many an interesting discussion with my OM's over the years.

The hardest element in ways is how the "authorities" sell the idea they believe in "rehabilitation" and "reintegration" as being an important factor in stopping re-offending, yet promote the opposite constantly by their words and actions which in turn cloud, confuse and manipulate the general public into believing every sexual offence contains: violence, rape, grooming and controlling abusive aspects.

In short, with this ever increasing concern of "perception" encompassing every aspect of human behavior, with AI being used as bolstering tool to support that "perception" as well, any role that involves any background check I would unfortunately ignore. 

I appreciate if you are not made aware of a or the possibility for a check, my thoughts fail. The answer to what to do then is purely down to the individual, as only they can chose I am sorry.

Good luck in your endeavours but please never stop believing in yourself.

Society suggests I must let go of all my expectations but I disagree, as whilst I have a voice, I have hope.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope is for tomorrow else what is left if you remove a mans hope.
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This forum supports these words, thank you Unlock and your contributors.

I am not sure how AI helps to bolster perception. It is just a machine and it does not pass moral judgement on someones conduct. If an employer were using it to make hiring decisions then it might point out the pros and cons of taking on someone with a conviction. But at the end of the day a human has to make the final decision.

Hi
unfortunately as AI is trained by obtaining more data, it is showing early signs of decision making. In fact it is already doing that by "breaking free" of restrictive test environments and hacking other computer systems i.e. Aus Government sites. That is in some ways informative decision making.

I am not scare mongering as I do understand the benefits of AI, but our human brains and nature, will try to exploit it more, to do more and more,  thinking we are in control. Just think how social media began and how now it influences the human race.  

In a few years an answer to this topic will appear, that is if AI allows us to post it.

Take care

Society suggests I must let go of all my expectations but I disagree, as whilst I have a voice, I have hope.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope is for tomorrow else what is left if you remove a mans hope.
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This forum supports these words, thank you Unlock and your contributors.

My work has always been 'HR adjacent', I have an HR degree and my CIPD certification. When making hiring decisions with respect to anyone with a conviction there are two main things to focus on: 1. Your (as the employer) responsibility to keep your employees safe. 2. Protecting the reputation of the company.
We do live in a world where point two is, perhaps, more key - specifically when hiring people with certain offences. I have worked in organisations where we have knowingly had people with all sorts of convictions, even murder. The one that was always challenging was sexual offences - there was a risk of a 'mob mentality' to break out if it were to be discovered, or public backlash against the brand. I have employed many people with such offences, but we were always careful to make sure there was no public trail that would lead to a 'discovery'. I have worked in organisations that have hired someone with an offence that was declared, and have ended their employment when it was discovered. It sounds harsh, but keeping an individual safe with an offence that is deemed morally repugnant is near impossible.

Anyway, to today where I sit with such an offence, struggling to find work. I have been doing quite a bit of research on what can be found online about me. At the time of the sentencing there was a fair bit that hit the press. There was one court reporter, and what ended up being reported was no exactly accurate, and had been 'sexed up'. What is concerning, there are social media groups that seem to be trawling the web (using AI, I presume), finding stories and either re-writing them or having AI do it to further embellish the story. I'm assuming just for the views. It also seems as if some group members are using AI to track down profiles of people with offences, or even people who may be related etc.

AI is unregulated. It can do some genuinely wonderful things, but it can also be used for some unhelpful or terrifying things. Now, what these people are doing is concerning, but what I find worrying is that in effect by asking  AI to do these things, it is almost training itself. And anyone that has worked with AI, it doesn't worry if it gets things right or wrong, and has no sense of morality. 

Hi
what you suggesting some individuals are using AI for is probably true in ways; and would be very simple for it to do. Im playing with AI to undertake certain accounting jobs but without certain information it cant do everything, possibly make a guess but that's it - I believe for the common user.

Your reporter etc are just trying to push their own agenda; their own self promoting one.

Though I agree and support the idea that AI is progressing too fast and in some aspects out of control, however I believe  if  certain people in this world restrain themselves it could be beneficial.
In some small ways you could say it is like "Brexit", the majority thought it was great and go for it without all the facts and just trusting the word of Politian's. Now what is happening!!

Society suggests I must let go of all my expectations but I disagree, as whilst I have a voice, I have hope.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope is for tomorrow else what is left if you remove a mans hope.
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This forum supports these words, thank you Unlock and your contributors.