Hidden Risk Signals: The Power of Unstructured Data in Background Screening By Alex Aoun

When running background checks and gathering risk intelligence, data is everything—but not all data plays by the same rules. There’s structured data, neatly organized like a spreadsheet of verified facts, and unstructured data, the untamed world of news articles, social media chatter, reports, interviews, and raw text.

They serve distinct but complementary roles, and due diligence gaps may appear when only one type of data is used.

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Structured Data: Fast, Reliable—but Limited

Structured data is the backbone of traditional screening— categorized, searchable, and stored in relational databases, a system IBM pioneered in the 1970s.
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This is the format where you’ll find:

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● Government databases
● Criminal records
● Credit history reports
● Employment verification logs

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Because structured data is standardized, searching, sorting, and analyzing is quick and efficient. It’s excellent for retrieving precise details—birth dates, addresses, work history. But it doesn’t always tell the full story.

However, without context and nuance, structured data may miss hidden risks that don’t appear in official records.

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