The language of background verification

An electronic Know Your Customer process where the candidate's identity is verified directly against the UIDAI database using an OTP or biometric authentication. This is the gold standard for Indian identity verification as it relies on the central registry.

A screening process that scans global news outlets, public records, and online publications for negative news regarding a candidate. This is distinct from criminal checks as it covers reputational risk that may not have resulted in formal charges.

A tamper-evident cryptographic log of every action taken during a verification case. This includes when consent was given, when a registry was queried, exactly what data was returned, and who reviewed the final report.

The process of investigating a candidate's commercial, criminal, employment, and financial records to ensure they are who they claim to be and meet the risk threshold for a specific role.

The compliant mechanism for obtaining permission from a candidate before their data is processed. Under the DPDP Act, this must be clear, specific, and explicitly granted rather than assumed.

The information supplied by the candidate during the onboarding process (e.g., 'I worked at TechCorp from 2018 to 2021'). The job of a BGV platform is to compare this against Verifiable Data.

An Indian government initiative under Digital India providing citizens a platform to store and share authentic digital documents. Documents fetched via DigiLocker are treated at par with original physical documents.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, India's primary legislation governing the processing of digital personal data. It mandates how candidate data must be collected, stored, and deleted.

Verification of employment history by querying the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation registry using a candidate's UAN. This exposes the actual timeline of provident fund deposits, making it impossible to falsify tenure.

A state where a check cannot proceed because the candidate provided incomplete, illegible, or incorrect inputs. The platform automatically flags this and requests the correct information from the candidate.

The practice of verifying a credential directly with the issuing authority (like a university registrar) rather than relying on a copy of a certificate provided by the candidate.

Checking a candidate against national and international lists of individuals penalized or restricted by governments or regulatory bodies, such as OFAC, UN Security Council, and SEBI debarred entities.

The duration from the moment a candidate provides their consent and inputs to the moment the final verified report is delivered to the employer. A major metric of BGV platform performance.