YES! As a HO this sounds like a great idea to me.
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I think youâre correct, @sarahftravel . This new background check policy came about as a condition stipulated by the investors. For this reason, I do not see this requirement going away.
I happen to be ultra-cautious and if I were a homeowner, it would take a lot for me to feel comfortable inviting a stranger into my home. An ID check would not be sufficient. I would want to see a criminal background check, preferably national, and several exceptionally good reviews and character references. I would also want to speak with prior homeowners who had hosted the applicant. I might consider a new sitter if I had the chance to meet them in person ahead of time and see how they interact with my pet and if I have spoken to several of their references. This may seem excessive, but this is me.
I have started the process to obtain my own National Criminal Record and will have my fingerprints taken tomorrow. Forms and procedures vary by state. I will then be able to advertise on other house sitting sites that I had a recent criminal history check done and will be happy to produce the document, and that I can provide references.
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Sorry, is this related to THS?
Question that I donât think has come up here:
Will HSs receive the results of their background checks?
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No, @Katie . I am initiating it on my own. I think this is the information HO really want to know.
In answer to your next post asking if THS receives the results of the background check, I refer back to the reply I received from Member Support and posted on Feb 11:
Hi Mars. Iâm referring to the results of the background check (not ID verification), and whether the person itâs about can get a copyânot whether THS sees it. My understanding is that the person in question does have the legal right to see the report.
@Katie , this would be a good question for Member Support. If you write, please post the answer.
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I too feel blindsided by this and wonder why email didnât go out ahead of time to all members. Did I get notice of this and could I have deleted it in error? I am now facing a March 16th deadline and feel rather stressed. So many questions and concerns by those of us on this Community Forum site. I wonder how many members are NOT aware of this mandatory Background check??
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Probably most of us. No one Iâve spoken to received any notice by email of the change. There are going to be a whole lot of people perturbed that their accounts wonât work on March 16.
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Particularly if you have paid your annual fees in good faith and have many more months to go before that expires. In many ways that is breech of contract .
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And although this seems like it will only affect sitters, I see many US homes listed with few or even no applicants. After March 16 there will be even fewer sitters to fill these spaces, meaning there could be many disappointed US homeowners. After all not every sit is in a high-demand location with dozens of applicants.
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ADMIN NOTICE - Please note that from 9.00 pm Pacific Time today this topic will be closed, reopening at 11.00 am GMT tomorrow Feb 16th allowing members across all time zones to post and Admins and Mods a break from the intense monitoring this thread requires to support everyone but importantly, the time will also allow other members on the forum to be helped and supported in equal measure.
Thank you very much for your understanding and patience.
Angela, Vanessa and the Forum Team
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Yes it is. And I received an email telling me that they will only be giving me a pro-rated refund, which I find completely unacceptable.
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Can I contact evident directly.speak to an actual person old lady struggling with copy of passport they donât tell me what to do to rectify this. Keep rejecting it. My driving licence out of date so can use that. Help please.
iâm very pleased to be french, as in France NOBODY can ask for criminal record for somebody else. Itâs ILLEGAL ! Only administration can do it (to hire employees, civil servants)
What we can do, as sitters, is to send our âextrait de casier judiciaireâ (sent to us by ministery of justice, valid on day D, not a few months later) to HO.
So far, no owner has ever asked for it. What would happen if I want to sit in USA ? Shall i be in all cases rejected as THS system cannot get the proof Iâm âcleanâ ?
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I did not get the email either and only found out about it through the forum. I did my ID check when I joined and apparently if you did that, no email was sent to you, but you still must complete the background check by 3/16. See below from a post from Angela a few days ago.
â* The mandatory criminal background checks currently affect only those registered in the USA.
- Email communications were sent out on Monday 7th February â if youâve unsubscribed you will not receive anything. There will be continual prompts and reminders up until the deadline by email and on the platform.
- The deadline for completion is March 16th
Please note - if you have already completed an ID check you will not get an e-mail.â
Ironically, sitters from other parts of the world, who have not completed a background check, will continue to be able to apply for sits in the USA - at least until some point in the future when they are also mandated to do so. Furthermore, no homeowners are having to comply. If this is so important, where is our protection? We pay the same fees and are customers too. I just TRUST that HOs are not criminals.
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@Angela_L , this is conflicting information. Please clarify. You wrote (as quoted above):
Does this mean I donât have to submit my SS# since I am already ID verified, as stated on my profile? If so, whatâs going on?
This is what appears on my profile page:
Fredericksburg, VA, US
21 Reviews
Email verified
Phone verified
ID verified
6 external references
Hi everyone,
Thanks so much for your ongoing feedback. Weâve been monitoring the conversations on this forum over the past couple days, and for us, itâs clear to see that you are supportive of having extra trust and safety measures in place - but there are still some very real concerns we havenât fully addressed, which I hope to do today.
Firstly, there seems to be some confusion around who needs to complete a background check, and who needs to complete an ID document check. To clarify, US sitters will need to complete a background check plus an ID document check, if they havenât done so already. Non-US sitters will only need to complete the ID document check (again, only if they havenât done so already).
Once again, myself and the team acknowledge your worries around sharing personal identification, and understand this is a real concern for many of you. From the conversations happening, itâs clear that the stand-out concern is around the sharing of Social Security Numbers. We have taken a list of your questions back to Evident for further clarification, which Iâve shared with you below:
Is our data covered by Personal Data and Information regulations?
Evident is a security and privacy first platform that is compliant with both GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the EU and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act).
How long is data kept by Evident?
Data kept for 7 years as required by FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) guidelines.
Is it possible to have my information removed from Evident once my verification is complete?
Yes, it is possible. If you wish to have your data erased from Evident after completion of your CBC or ID check, please make your request in writing to TrustedHousesittersâ Membership Services team. We will then contact Evident on your behalf and ensure that your right to erasure is honoured.
How does Evident ensure that our data is safe? Can our members be sure that a data breach, similar to that of Equifax (a credit-scoring agency that was hacked in 2017), wonât happen with Evident?
Upon submission of your personal details, Evident utilises end to end encryption (between the browser and the server) to protect and secure your data. When saving to their servers, Evident split up each piece of personal data, encrypt it, and store it separately. If a data breach were to occur, it would be impossible to re-connect these pieces of information e.g. which first name relates to which surname, therefore keeping the overall user identity secret. This distributed data model is completely different (and an order of magnitude more secure) than the implementation employed by the likes of Equifax, where identity data was stored together in a single place. Additionally, your personal data is never processed or stored by TrustedHousesitters; weâre simply notified of the outcome of the check which we then record against the relevant sitter profile.
Will Evident sell my personal data to third parties?
No, Evident do not ever sell personal data to third parties. They only provide âaggregatedâ (or cumulative) data, which is purely statistical and completely anonymous. A good example of the data they would share would be: âover 50% of a particular industry shows a result of XXâ
Why is a Social Security Number necessary for an Evident background check?
Providing an SSN is necessary to Evidentâs process, as itâs the most accurate way to return a check. For example, there may be hundreds of John Smiths with the same birthday, living in the same state - by providing an SSN, Evident can be 100% certain that they are returning data on the correct individual.
Why is Evident not BBB (Better Business Bureau) approved?
Evident are not accredited with BBB but they have been awarded an A+ rating. BBB assigns ratings from A+ (highest) to F (lowest). In some cases, BBB will not rate the business (indicated by an NR, or âNo Ratingâ) for reasons that include insufficient information about a business or ongoing review/update of the businessâs file. This document explains how they award that high rating that requires a score of 97: Overview of BBB Ratings | Better Business BureauÂŽ
Is any of my data held or processed at Evidentâs office in Poland?
Evidentâs office in Poland is for development and operations. All customer data is hosted in the United States and access is limited to United States employees.
We have also clarified these points in our updated FAQs document - available here
The thought of even one member leaving our community fills us all with genuine sadness - our members are the very heart of TrustedHousesitters. Like you, we love how well our platform has been working so far, but as we grow, we need to make sure everyone is as safe as possible. We understand that this is another layer of security, but we simply have to ensure as much safety and security as possible in this day and age.
Kind regards,
Mathew
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