I’ve spent 30 years in this industry. I started as a private investigator, conducting thousands of investigations for HR managers — theft, harassment, embezzlement, workplace misconduct. Later, I built and ran one of the country’s largest background check companies, processing millions of employment verifications. I’ve sat across from employees in interviews, I’ve sat beside HR leaders in crisis meetings. I know what drives employee resentment, and I know how it damages trust. And Trust… Is everything
And here’s the uncomfortable truth: the biggest threat to your employer brand isn’t compliance or regulators. It’s your own people — quietly resenting you while they’re still on the payroll, or furiously angry once they’ve left. Sometimes resentment stays under the surface. Other times it shows up as disengagement, theft, or sabotage. In the worst cases, it escalates into real harm — to the company, to executives, or to fellow employees. And former employees? The feel free to lash out. According to our surveys, they’re far more likely to go public — posting on social media, contacting attorneys, and damaging the brand.
We tested this with a national survey. The results should make every HR executive and business leader stop in their tracks:
- 52% of employees said they would be extremely upset if they found out their employer allowed their data to be sold.
- 1 in 3 said they would take it public — posting on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to call out their employer.
- 34% said they’d contact a lawyer, union, or government agency to seek retribution.
- And here’s the kicker: most said they would still hold the employer responsible even if a third-party vendor was doing the reselling.
It’s the forgotten permission problem. Employees sign authorizations buried in job, loan, or rental forms. They forget about them. Later down the road — days, weeks, months, or sometimes even years — their data is accessed again without any at-the-time notification. It’s legal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but it feels like a betrayal.
And the old system made it worse. Employers were told they could “save time” by dumping bulk employee data into third-party databases. In some cases, they even shared in the revenue when those databases resold the records. Employees don’t see “the database” — they see you giving away their records. And when they find out, they hate you for it. When they see you profiting from it (you know who you are) They are livid…
The new model is different. At MyEmployment, employees are brought back into the loop. They receive real-time notifications when a request comes in, can set broad permission rules, and can see exactly who accessed their records in an audit trail. For employers, the data can be kept in-house on a white-labeled platform, eliminating the need to hand over bulk files to third-party databases. Verifiers still get the fast, compliant results they need — but now the process is transparent, controlled, and trust-building.
Here’s the question I’d challenge every HR leader and executive to ask:
When your current and former employees eventually discover how their data has been handled, will they see you as the protector — or the betrayer?
That’s the choice every employer faces.
Employees: Ask your HR team which vendor handles your verifications. Employers: Protect your people and your reputation. It’s time to rethink this.
The practices described here are legal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and related state laws. Employers and third-party verification providers are permitted to share and access employment data when authorization has been given. The concern raised is not about legality, but about transparency and employee trust. MyEmployment is designed to give employees visibility into when and how their data is accessed, while helping employers and verifiers maintain compliance.