Background check services by courthouses and other government public record authorities have already been made available to the public via the Internet. According to a survey conducted by Center for Democracy and Technology, it has become a rampant trend with a wide variety of policies and application.

Right now, many government record authorities are offering free background check services, usually online. And that means giving access to as many people anytime anywhere thus, making it a sort of an open source service.

Government records are often made accessible over the Internet according to the area or state of jurisdiction. Therefore, one may no longer need to pay a personal visit to a far county courthouse just to obtain records. Government authorities can provide either criminal or civil records but restrictions may apply depending on the sensitivity of the background check information. Because of some restrictions and regulations for public record retrievals (and also for a growing demand), some may charge a certain fee for the access.

Certain governmental issues have risen concerning the electronically-available background check resources. The apparent responsibility that the government has been facing now is on how to manage privacy and accountability at the same time. For instance, the content of the records made available to the public has restrictions and has been made selective. Judicial opinions are favored to be available more than trial court proceedings. The reason is the sensitivity of the material that the proceedings might contain. Another issue poses on the Internet background check fees. Discrimination issues had been a debate to whether online background checks are only favorable to those who are willing and have the ability to pay. These are the constraints that the government uses to balance and design an appropriate online background check service.

The availability of public records means a lot of information ready to be accessed by the public. But the problem sometimes is lack of knowledge about. Some people may still be spending time, money, and effort traveling when the same information they need is available in just one sitting.

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