Adam, where are you?

Just like the first man in the Bible, Adam, humans hide when we are shameful. Very true, isn't it? However, the hiding is an illusion. Just like the song "God is watching us from a distance," we may try to hide and think that we are hidden, but in fact, we can't hide.

How about hiding from other mortal human beings? It is getting more difficult. We are now empowered with easily available information. The author of the book "The World is Flat" mentioned in it how did his daughter easily found the addresses of her friends by searching their phone numbers using Google.

I bet you know Google is not an address book, but a powerful search engine. Thus, anybody can do a background check, and this "anybody" could be our potential employers, future parents-in-law, future spouse, school mates, colleagues, etc.

I hope these are not scary, but beneficial to many by better knowing their potential partners in work and life. However, Google search is general and form the cyberworld that has both true and fake information. SentryLink provides search services on specific backgrounds such as driving, credit, property, and one of them is Criminal Background Check using public records obtained from state and local government offices. I hope this does not make job hunting more difficult for ex-criminals. Instead, may be such available knowledge can help to avoid awkward situations since employers can know in advance and can be better prepared to work with ex-criminals from the very start if they decide to employ any of them.

Furthermore, there are jobs which are not suitable, and vice-versa, for ex-criminals. Thus, respective bosses can do a criminal check through SentryLink on their potential employees.

Although it reminds me of the book "1984", it is not about the technology, but about how the technology is used. I doubt we can prevent these technological advances. Thus, the best is not to have anything to hide and live according to our conscience. Such transparency should encourage an honest society and world.