It blows my mind how easily companies in the USA share informations about their former employees.
In my country “background check” itself is a grey area and sometimes it could lead to legal troubles. But more importantly, there's no way that one company would give the other company data or details about their ex-workers. Half of them would probably insult you just for the fact, that you dared to ask, LOL.
So background check here is literally impossible – not because of the law, but because the mentality of firms. BTW this leads also to the fact, that another common American idea – “job references” – almost doesn't exist in my country.