>>Debt problems could indicate risky behavior that could pose a threat to that data.<<
On that we agree. It is what I was saying in a previous post. Problem is, that is only one factor. And you already have your job. You can explain it, be it divorce, medical bills, whatever. When one is applying for a job, they just find out their credit was not good enough - without ever knowing what "good enough" is. It's like getting a speeding ticket but never being told what the limit is. You are only told that you were going too fast.
Fact is, every form of surveilance or any and all forms of digging into peoples lives can be justified by arguments such as you (and I) made in our posts, but that doesn't make it alright. Just as there is no death penalyt for litering, but it is reasonable for first degree murder, perhaps credit checks shouls be limited to those with jobs such as yours or other "high" (as opposed to medium or low) security jobs.
If this trend goes unchecked, we will end up like the old Chinese dynasties, with people being pidgeon holed pretty much from birth with rare exceptions.
We recently hired an applicant with a Masters degree in computer science. I was his first manager. His first assignment was to write a web application in Java which on his resume was an area of expertise. The result after three months was less useful than I could have gotten from a high school freshman. Yet we could not ask him to compose sample code during the interview.