It depends on how the company goes about it. The larger the company, the more established the HR department. They may use their HR platform to conduct the check which may find any and everything. The smaller companies may only check recent background with a local firm. Price is the name of the game. The more in-depth the background check, the more it costs. If you are going to work in a bank or with kids, be prepared to for the company/school to use the state equivalent of the FBI. For mom and pop shops, they may just take your word on the application. If you see a national HR platform like Paycom, then the results can vary depending on the package the company purchases.

I just realized I didn’t answer your question though. The main issue of using data brokers is that you as in the employer, for the most part, can’t or are legally dissuaded from using them. We can only use official records to judge your trustworthiness. Things like data brokers are a grey area. It’s not legally admissible in a background check by most EEOC standards, but people use any system they want. It’s on the job seeker to prove they were discriminated against.

As someone who hires people regularly, I only use the information provided by the HR platform. I don’t google people because I wouldn’t want that to happen to me. Other people may not have the same compunctions.

Edit: Actually answering the damn question.