Can we check up on applicants’ online profiles as part of our recruitment process before deciding whom to appoint?

There is no formal legal provision preventing an employer from looking at any publicly available material before offering an individual a job, including social media. However, you should weigh the benefit of obtaining any information from these sites against your aim of conducting and carrying out a systematic, fair and objective recruitment and selection procedure. For instance, if you find information on these sites which makes you want to reject a candidate, consider how this fits with your fair and objective procedure.

Remember also that you should avoid considering information, which could be discriminatory, during the recruitment and selection process. More subtly, inferences can be