Information About Confidential Background Records

The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act deems certain kinds of background information about an individual as “confidential” and hence lays down strict laws relating to their release. That is to say, the Act restricts and explicitly specifies the individuals or authorities and reasons to and for which these confidential background records may be disclosed.

Background records are termed as “confidential” based on their degree of sensitivity. This measure of sensitivity is proportional to the amount of risk that an individual may be subjected to or his/her reputation may suffer when certain types of background information is disclosed at large. A record is also categorized as “confidential” depending upon the extent of personal and private information that is contained in it.

Financial, educational, medical, criminal, and military background check results frequently contain some bits of information that are classified as “confidential” and hence are not open for public viewing. You would need to obtain special permission to view these kinds of information.

Confidential Medical Background Records

Medical records are usually considered highly confidential because of the sheer amount of private and personal information that they contain. There are in fact, federal laws in place that govern the release of some kinds of medical records, especially those related to HIV/AIDS information, mental health, and substance abuse treatment records. This is mostly done in order to encourage individuals to seek or continue the medical treatment that they require.

You may obtain your own confidential medical records but never your friend’s or your colleagues. Even then, you will have to fill out specific forms to obtain copies of your medical records. There are however, instances where the parent of a minor child, a legal guardian, or someone in whom you have vested a health care power of attorney can request copies of confidential medical background records.

Confidential Criminal Background Records

Criminal background searches are often conducted by the common man and law enforcement officers to check the credibility of individuals. The Freedom of Information Act, in recent years, has made it mandatory that most criminal records be made available to the public. This has been done as a public safety measure.

But most laws dictate that criminal background records involving juveniles will be kept confidential and hence not available for public viewing. There are also some laws that state that information on all personal effects and possessions of an arrested individual that are not related to the investigation will be deemed confidential.

Non-conviction information that is criminal records that have been expunged, information on persons who have been granted youthful offender status and allegations that have not been corroborated for more than a year can only be accessed by the person concerned and his/her defense attorney.

Other Confidential Background Records

You may need to check if a person is an alumnus of a certain college or a school or verify whether his/her claims to have studied in an institution for a specified period of time. Most educational institutions make public these kinds of information and all you would need to do to obtain these, is to log on to their websites or visit their administrative offices. But the educational background records like those related to evaluation of performances, counseling information, student advisor’s files and certain kinds of student records like his/her parents’ income information are regarded confidential and so are not available to the general public.

Certain military background records like information on the length or nature of service in a secret task force or mission is deemed confidential since their disclosure may be pose threats to national security.