Employment Background Checks

Note that there is no ban on running a background check. This information will come out then. No reason to require people to disclose something you might not have cared about (as an employer) to begin with.

interesting. do you know if they carried out any background checks on you?

Amusing story! But in some countries (not sure about the US) it is common to perform a criminal record check, credit check etc. on new employees. In high compliance environments (e.g banks) the checks may span any countries you have resided/worked in for the previous few years.

this can't be true, how would you pass background checks?

Depends on the job. The good jobs involve background checks, and the entire stack may be checked.

have you ever dealt with background checks? they don't care

Probably the didn't do a background check?

Background checks don't call your old boss. How would they even know who that is?

I've interviewed with a reputable company (mentioned on HN frequently) that performs background checks before interviewing you on-site

Try a smaller company. They typically don't run actual background checks. They may, however, run a google search and something could come up.