The legality of Social Media Background Checks

If you're looking to hire new employees, social media background checks can help you learn more about them than you would from an interview or resume. As these kinds of searches become more common, be sure to consider the privacy rights of your candidates so that you can alleviate any worries they may have about it.

This raises the question of whether or not background checks on social media are permissible. A background screening company or other trusted third party is required for this to be successful.

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Benefits of Background Checks on Social Media

1. An All-Inclusive Search can be found here. Social media profiles, as opposed to resumes and applications, provide a glimpse into a person's personality. A social media background check includes a search of well-known websites as well as a search of the internet for negative content. Background checks on social media should be thorough enough to look for workplace safety issues, such as racist or sexist posts and posts with sexually explicit images.
2. Combating Threats from Within— Employees, vendors, and business partners, as well as those who have worked for your company in the past, are all at risk from insider threats. Depending on their position, any of these individuals could potentially have access to sensitive data, putting you at risk. As part of your overall threat mitigation strategy, social media background checks can help you identify high-risk job candidates and vendors before they have access to your organization's values and privacy.
3. There is a lot at stake when it comes to protecting your business's reputation. An additional layer of defense against bad actors on social media is to use screening tools. For example, if you hire someone who has been accused of sexual harassment, your brand could suffer greatly. A social media background check can help protect your company's reputation from risky employees, minimize the risk of a negligent hire, and serve as an additional line of defense against internal cybersecurity threats.

Risks Associated with Conducting Background Checks on Social Media Users Internally

Employers' access to personal information has been restricted by federal and state laws. To violate any social media platform's terms and conditions is a federal crime, and employers cannot request access to social media profiles. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have privacy policies that users must agree to comply with.

Discrimination is also a concern due to the fact that a large number of candidate profiles will include information such as race and gender as well as other personal information that cannot be used to make an employment decision. This information is protected by the EEOC and can lead to legal and ethical issues when conducting social media background checks on your own. Even if you don't intend to disqualify a candidate from the position, you may subconsciously disqualify them if you discover that they're a member of a Facebook group discussing pregnancy, even if they weren't aware of it. It's impossible to avoid seeing this information, even if you know that you can't use it to make employment decisions. This puts your organization at risk.

What a Background Check Agency Can Do for You

Despite the fact that social media background checks are restricted by law, they are still a valuable resource. If the information is already out in the open, there are legal ways to get your hands on it. An outside screening company can provide any negative information without violating the privacy of your candidate or vendor and can provide a more comprehensive background check than internal research. Using a professional background screening company, you can conduct a social media background check on your candidate and stay compliant by omitting personal information and other discriminatory factors before they reach your team. Protected class information can be avoided by using a background screening company.

Remember to disclose the social media background check in an authorization release that allows the company to conduct the evaluation. This is a critical point to remember. To assist you with the creation of this document, we recommend that you speak with an attorney. When an employer takes these steps, the search is made public and only relevant information is made available to the hiring process.

Final Note

It is legal to conduct social media background checks, but only if they are done properly. Although conducting these searches on your own is risky and may even be illegal, you can still benefit from social media background checks by using a third-party screening firm.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 03 December 2021