When we talk about the gig economy, most people think of companies like Uber or Lyft. We tend to think of the gig economy as a relatively new phenomenon but the fact of the matter is that the gig economy has been integral to myriad industries for generations and moves hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Every summer job, childcare role, and traveling healthcare position falls under the umbrella of the gig economy. While COVID increased the demand for delivery services or temporary jobs, the gig economy was steadily on the rise for years.
Millions work within this system, and many millions more benefit from it. For those working in the gig economy, there are issues that feel unmovable. If you are a nurse applying for a job at a hospital, it is a reasonable expectation that you submit to a background check. You are, after all, being placed in a position to care for the health and safety of countless patients. However, if you are a traveling nurse, you do not expect your gig to last for years to come — this is a temporary position and you will likely have several in a given year.
So, is it still reasonable to submit to the same background checks? For employers, I would say it is still a fair expectation to know who you are hiring. For the nurses, it is a never-ending probe that asks them to trust numerous people with their most sensitive personal identifiable information (PII). The status quo is such that this is considered a necessary evil. A necessary evil, though, is still evil and I argue that there is a better way forward.
As we are in the heat of the summer, let’s consider for a moment a hypothetical individual applying for a seasonal gig. This person wants to work in a tourist haven on the beach so they submit a resume to a large hotel in town. The hotel moves forward with their application but in order to complete the background check, our applicant must provide their date of birth (DOB) and social security number (SSN). Simple enough, they email this over to the HR department and the ball is rolling. Our person works through the summer, then heads home — but their PII stays right where it is. That SSN lives on a server, never changing, never even reviewed again by the company, for an undetermined amount of time. For most corporations, this data is meaningless after the employee is hired but it remains well past the term of their employee’s contract.
PII has great meaning, however, especially to hackers. This treasure trove is sitting undisturbed in a system with as much security as deemed absolutely necessary (i.e. the simplest or most cost-effective.) If you build a large enough repository of sensitive information, you cannot reasonably expect hackers not to come for it at some point. Our employee has exposed themselves to a world of trouble because they dared to want steady work for a couple of months. You could make the case, quite correctly, that this is an issue for every company that asks for PII. However, the gig economy opens you up to risk time and time again. If you work two gigs in a year, your risk is doubled. Many professions rely on more than two contracts in a year, multiplying their risk directly with each opportunity.
The way forward is simple for employees and businesses but it relies upon forging the right partnership. As you can see in the hypothetical above, the problem is this: how can we confirm identities without compromising them? Companies could simply start believing in the good in all people and assume there will be no issues in hiring somebody off their word alone. However, I would rather live in a world where my childcare workers or nurses are vetted.
My solution is a third party that is trusted by corporations and the general public to be a steward of this information. Think of the way that PayPal operates; through PayPal, you can buy things without giving every single site your credit card number. It places a bubble around your information which allows you to interact with the internet without sacrificing privacy. When it comes to PII and Identity Verification, Trua will fill this role.
Trua will be the first and last place you enter your SSN or DOB in your application process. When you are prompted by a prospective employer for your PII to verify your identity, Trua will confirm your identity without exposing your PII. If this company would like to run something like a criminal background check, that can be added on piecemeal to the process as opposed to including everything in one fell swoop. You should only expose as much of your information as is absolutely essential, the rest is your business.
As it stands today, if you are worried about your PII, you can send a formal request to companies asking them to delete your data. Or you can see what each company or country’s standard operating procedures are for data and proceed accordingly. You can try to limit your exposure by asking what is absolutely necessary to submit or asking precisely what will be done with your SSN, but this is an uncomfortable position to be in when you are applying for a job.
We are so compliant with our data because we fear losing out on opportunities, or we simply don’t think about the repercussions of the data breaches we see every day. Trua provides peace of mind that allows the gig economy to function precisely as it does today but with reduced risk and reduced work for companies and individuals alike. Trust and Safety in the gig economy can be achieved without toying around PII.