As background checking friends, dates, and acquaintances becomes more common, it’s important to know what people could see when they dive into your public records.

Here’s how you can do a background check on yourself with Instant Checkmate.

1. Write Down Your Past Addresses

This step is particularly important if you have a common name like John Smith or Mary Johnson. Remember all the cities where you have previously lived and write them down for quick reference.

2. Enter Your Name, State, and Age Into The Search Box

The more details you enter into the search box at the top of the Instant Checkmate dashboard after the purchase of a membership, the more refined your results will be when you background check yourself. Enter your full name, the state where you currently live, and your age.

3. Find Your Report

In some cases, you’ll only see your report in the results page. But it’s possible, you’ll see additional results, each representing a person who matches some of your details.

Choose the report that aligns with all of your information (age, middle initial, city, state).

Instant Checkmate members have access to unlimited reports, so don’t worry if you choose the wrong report to start. You can simply go back to the search results and select the correct report.

4. Examine Every Part of The Report

Now that you’ve found the right report, examine it closely section by section.

Personal

The personal section lists your basic information, such as your name, age, possible photos, education, and job history. If you don’t want certain entries in the job history or education sections to appear in your report, it’s easy to remove them. You can even remove photos if they’re inaccurate.Note that when removing information, these edits only apply to the report you are viewing in your Instant Checkmate dashboard. Using the “remove” tool within a report does not remove the information from the Instant Checkmate site or from your report if another user pulls it.

Contact

The contact section might list several email addresses and phone numbers you’ve had throughout your life. You can remove information from this section in your generated report to keep them up to date.

Location

This may include current and past addresses. If you have recently moved, your current address might not appear.

Criminal and Traffic Records

The criminal history section searches for criminal and traffic records sourced from local, state, and federal databases across the country. This can include everything from major felonies to minor speeding tickets.

Instant Checkmate categorizes criminal and traffic records into three categories: likely criminal and traffic records, possible criminal and traffic records, and less likely criminal and traffic records.

Social

Social media information could impact your career and keeping aware of what’s out there is important. The social media section of your report might show all of the social media accounts you’ve created over the years.

Survey the social media accounts to see if there’s anything you are uncomfortable with other people seeing. Did you have an old Twitter® account that you used to troll people during your more immature years? Did you forget that you used to be active on a Pokémon® forum? Is there perhaps an old account on a dating social media network that you forgot to delete?

Remember: when people research you, they might get a faulty impression based solely on information they see online. After you check your social media accounts, you can go to those sites to clean up your digital footprint.

Know How Others See You By Background Checking Yourself

Your neighbors, your friends, and even potential dates might pull your background check in order to know more about you. By running a background check on yourself first, you can help ensure you already know what’s out there on you.