When it comes to screening new workers, the gig economy is a contradiction.

It's a labor market built on speed and flexibility. Yet, the process for conducting background checks on those workers is slow, redundant, and increasingly risky.

Every time a gig worker joins a new platform, they must go through the same background check process, producing the same personally identifiable information (Social Security number, driver's license, or other documents) that they showed to the last dozen businesses or digital platforms that contracted for their services.

For the platforms hiring these gig workers — whose primary business is to provide goods and services and not spend millions of dollars in screening the participants on their platforms — this results in duplicated personal data across countless databases, an increase in compliance costs, and greater breach exposure without meaningfully improving safety for the business and its customers. In essence, the gig economy's system — or in some cases lack of a system — for conducting background checks doesn't work as well as it should.

And, of course, it needs to work well because trust is a big factor with all businesses in the gig economy. If customers........

© International Business Times