Backgrounds Online attended the Professional Background Screening Association’s (PBSA) 2026 conference in Arlington, Texas. The event brought industry professionals together to discuss emerging challenges, share insights, and explore ways to make background screening more accurate, effective, and compliant. This month, we’re sharing some key takeaways.

Key Takeaway Identity Verification One of the biggest topics at the conference was about validating the identities of people who are being screened. Before a background investigation begins, it is essential to confirm we are pulling records for the correct person. This helps reduce risks that can stem from common names or deeper similarities like when people share matching personal identifiers, such as name and date of birth.

These discussions made us even more excited about our recently introduced Identity Verification feature. This simple yet powerful tool helps verify an individual’s identity before the screening process begins. Learn more and contact us for details about how to take advantage of this excellent new product.

More Conference Takeaways

Fraud

Advocacy

Compliance

Fraud Mitigation

AI is changing the hiring landscape, including how candidates create resumes and fill out applications. While these tools can be useful, they can also make it easier for inaccurate or misleading information to be presented to hiring managers.

To help rule out misinformation, verifying employment and education history validates the candidate’s qualifications. Depending on the position for which you are hiring, we also offer options to authenticate licenses, credentials or other position-focused certifications.

Advocacy

Backgrounds Online, along with the PBSA, is a strong advocate for sensible, reasonable screening policies that balance consumer privacy with your need for reportable, accurate data. Various legislators attend these conferences, which provides an excellent opportunity for us to voice concerns and explain the needs of employers.

For example, some jurisdictions have implemented laws that make it difficult for organizations to get the background data they need to make informed decisions. By collaborating and sharing industry expertise, we can help lawmakers understand these challenges and encourage reasonable, practical legislation.

Compliance

The topic of compliance is always at the forefront of PBSA events. We hear about new and upcoming laws and bring that knowledge back to serve you. It helps us plan ahead, build relevant tools and keep you aware of legal requirements and best practices.

Learn about compliance related topics from a variety of our free services, including:

• This Newsletter.
• Our weekly blog.
• The State Laws section of our site.

Staying Informed You, our amazing clients, are the main reason we participate in PBSA and other conferences. We keep our fingers on the pulse of the industry and participate as thought leaders.

One of our most important goals is to continuously develop exciting features that make your process even easier. We are always working on new products and striving to make existing processes even smoother to enhance the screening experience overall.