If you’ve recently reviewed a criminal background screening report and noticed a candidate’s date of birth was missing or redacted, you’re not alone. This is becoming more common across the country, and it often raises questions for HR teams and hiring managers who want to ensure they’re making informed, defensible hiring decisions.

Here’s what’s happening and why your background check is still complete.

The Shift in How Courts Handle Personally Identifiable Information

Courts nationwide are rethinking how they manage public access to sensitive data. While transparency in public records has always been important, there’s been a growing recognition that certain personally identifiable information can be exploited for identity theft and fraud. Dates of birth are particularly vulnerable.

Many jurisdictions have implemented new policies that limit or completely redact dates of birth from the records they make available to screening providers. The court itself is protecting individuals’ privacy at the source. Every background screening provider faces the same court-level restrictions.

These redactions can stem from:

• State or local privacy regulations designed to combat identity theft
• Internal court policies that restrict access to personally identifiable information in electronic records systems
• Technology limitations within specific court databases that prevent the release of certain fields

When Universal Background Screening encounters a redacted date of birth, the court will only release what we’re able to provide in the report.

How We Verify Criminal Records When DOB Information Isn’t Available

When a date of birth isn’t available, our research team uses a comprehensive approach that considers multiple data points to evaluate whether a record is a match:

• Full legal name and any known aliases the candidate has used
• Address history that places the individual in the jurisdiction where the record was found
• Jurisdiction-specific identifiers like case numbers or filing details
• Case information and dispositions that provide additional context

By cross-referencing these elements, our team can assess with confidence whether a record is relevant to your candidate. This layered verification method is thorough and represents the industry standard for responsible, compliant screening.

What This Means for Your Hiring Team

When you see a background check report with a redacted or missing date of birth, here’s what you should know:

1. The search is complete. We conducted the search according to the parameters set by the court and documented what was and wasn’t available to us.
2. The record has been properly vetted. Our researchers have confirmed relevance through multiple identifying factors.
3. You’re getting full transparency. We explain in the report what information was accessible, what limitations we encountered from the court, and how we reached our conclusions. That level of clarity helps you make confident, defensible hiring decisions across all your locations, even when different courts have different policies.

Our Commitment: White-Glove Service Meets Industry-Leading Compliance

At Universal Background Screening, we’ve built our reputation on personalized, responsive service that helps you navigate situations like this. When you’re reviewing a report with limited information, you deserve to understand what it means and whether you can trust the results.

Every report includes context about:

• Where the information came from and what access limitations existed
• The scope and depth of the search we conducted on your behalf
• Any restrictions imposed by the court that affected the data we could obtain

We deliver understanding along with data. Our team is here to help you interpret results, navigate complex scenarios, and implement screening programs that are both compliant and effective.

Questions About DOB Redactions or Background Screening Compliance?

If you’re encountering redacted dates of birth in your background checks or have questions about how to maintain consistent adjudication standards across different jurisdictions, our team is here to help. With over 40 years of combined industry experience and a commitment to staying ahead of evolving court policies, we can guide you through these challenges with confidence.

Contact Universal Background Screening to speak with one of our screening specialists about your specific hiring needs.