SOCIAL MEDIA BACKGROUND CHECKS

Protect your business from risky online behaviour

A candidate’s online presence can say more than their resume ever will. Our Social Media Background Checks help uncover red flags like discriminatory language, violent content, or other behaviour that could put your company’s culture or reputation at risk.

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SOCIAL MEDIA SCREENING FOR EMPLOYMENT

Request a Social Media Check in Minutes

For companies in search of reliable and insightful information about prospective employees, conducting a thorough social media background check has become a crucial necessity.

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 Insightful Reporting

Get more insight including risk makeup, word cloud, sentiment analysis, and other metrics.

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Legally Compliant

We follow federal and local laws including FCRA, EEOC, and GDPR to ensure compliance.

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Thorough Analysis

We analyzes more platforms, more posts and identifies up to 2 times more risks.

AI-Powered Social Media Screening

By combining expert human review with advanced machine learning, we deliver fast, accurate, and comprehensive insights into a candidate’s online presence. Our process analyzes original posts, likes, comments, replies, and reposts—along with the images attached to each post, including memes.


The following are the possible behaviour classifications surfaced from a social media check:

  • Disparaging

    Name-calling, disrespectful, or derogatory statements toward an individual or group about their physical characteristics such as weight, height, looks, intelligence, etc.

  • Drug Image

    Images of pills, syringes, paraphernalia. It may include smoking, drinking, and injections.

  • Drug/Alcohol Mention

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • Gory/Violence Image

    Images of disfigurations, open wounds, bloodshed, body parts, burns, crime scenes, corpses, vehicle crash scenes, explosions, and fighting.

  • Nudity Image

    Images of explicit and non-explicit nudity, adult and pornographic content, partially exposed body parts.


  • Politics/Government

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • Prejudice

    Derogatory, abusive, and/or threatening statements toward a specific group of people typically on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation.

  • Profanity

    Obscene language, cursing, swearing, or in general crude or vulgar words and phrases.

  • Rude Gestures/Symbols

    Visual depiction of middle finger, Nazi party symbols, and images containing extremist and terrorist group flags.

  • Self Harm

    Indications of wanting to hurt oneself or take one’s own life intentionally. This could also be mentions of suicide or suicidal behaviour in others.

  • Suggestive

    Includes expressions relating to sexual misconduct that could be considered sexually demeaning or sexual harassment.

  • Threats

    An intent to inflict harm or loss of another person’s life.

  • Weapons Image

    Instruments or devices used to cause harm to living beings including firearms, sharp weapons, explosives and ammunition.

  • Keywords

    Flagged posts based on matches (text and images) to custom keywords provided. Keywords can be designated negative, positive, or neutral.

Checks that Adhere to Canadian Privacy Laws

We understand that social media content often includes personal information, and manual screening can raise legal and privacy concerns. Privacy regulators in Canada have raised questions about the compliance of these checks under Canadian privacy laws.

That’s why Hire Performance Inc. has developed a process that minimizes privacy risks and ensures our social media background screening services meet all applicable Canadian privacy regulations.

  • Do I Need Consent to Run a Social Media Check?

    Yes, consent or proper notice is required under Canadian Privacy Laws. Before a social media background check can be conducted, employers must inform candidates and either obtain their consent or provide a formal notice, depending on the applicable legal requirements.


    To make this process easier for our clients, Hire Performance provides a ready-to-use consent or notice form that meets legal standards. This ensures you remain compliant while streamlining the screening process.

  • Does Your Process Help Protect Third-Party Privacy?

    Hire Performance's social media background screening service involves scanning of information that is accessible to the public on, for example, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and the Internet in general.  Hire Performance does not use any unfair, misleading or unlawful means to obtain information about individuals.  Hire Performance will never attempt to circumvent passwords and does not obtain information by “friending” the candidate or connecting with their social media contacts.

  • Is Social Media Screening Compliant with Privacy Laws?

    Absolutely. We’ve developed our process with privacy compliance in mind. Our team only scans publicly available information across major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and public websites.


    We never use misleading, deceptive, or invasive techniques to gather data. That means no password circumvention, no fake friend requests, and no connecting with candidates or their contacts. Our approach aligns with Canadian privacy regulations and is designed to withstand legal scrutiny.

  • How Accurate Are Your Social Media Screening Results?

    Another concern expressed by privacy regulators in Canada is that social media searches can result in collection of irrelevant information and/or too much information.


    Clients that use Hire Performance’s services define the content that is relevant to their hiring decisions. The results of the social media search that are returned to our clients only include content that is relevant to the pre-selected criteria.  This means that clients only receive information that is relevant to their workplaces and the positions for which they are hiring. 


    Therefore, using Hire Performance’s services reduces the risk that social medial background screening will result in collection of more information than is reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.

  • Will I Receive Only Job-Relevant Information?

    Yes, and that’s one of the biggest advantages of using our service. Clients determine what content is relevant to their specific hiring criteria—whether that’s threats, profanity, discriminatory language, or risky behaviour.


    The final report you receive only includes content that matches those selected categories. This helps avoid information overload and ensures you're only reviewing what’s appropriate and necessary for the role you’re hiring for.

Uncover Risky Online Behaviour Before You Hire

Approximately 20% of employees resign due to their association with a toxic colleague. Detect potential instances of workplace misconduct by conducting pre-employment social media background checks. Employers must take additional measures beyond conventional background screening methods to safeguard their brand from potential viral online misconduct by candidates.

Checks as low as $21

Social Media Check Blogs

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How Social Media Can Impact Your Job Opportunities

By Tim Hardie • October 25, 2023
Social media serves as a powerful reflection of your personal and professional identity. Employers are increasingly turning to social media screenings to gain deeper insights into job candidates before making hiring decisions. Learn how social media can impact your job opportunities.