how do you protect your tenant's identity?

[Craig Ward]

A little backstory,

An old landlord/property manager of mine recently used the rental application I filled out back then to apply for a credit card in my name. 

had I not been watching my reports on a daily basis I would not have caught it in time.

so how do you protect a tenants identity while also keeping adequate records? 

who has access to those applications?

what do you do with them after a tenant moves out or you chose a different tenant to move in?

just curious,

Craig Ward

[Ken P.]

I use third party websites to carry out credit/background checks so that I don't have to ever see my tenants' SSNs.

I've used various companies in the past but now I use a service called Rentalutions for all of my property management work including tenant screening.