The Interview Went Well. Then They Looked You Up.

The interview felt great.  You never heard back.

Somewhere between the interview and the silence, a hiring manager pulled up a public profile.  A photo, a post, a comment thread from years ago.  Nobody told the candidate that happened, and nobody has to.

California law does not stop an employer from looking at what is genuinely public.  Lab.  Code § 980 restricts an employer from requiring an applicant to hand over the password or login credentials to a personal account, but it does not ban reviewing content anyone with a browser can already see.

Where it can matter is what that review reveals and what happens next.  If a public post disclosed something tied to a protected characteristic under FEHA (Gov.  Code § 12940, the Fair Employment and Housing Act), religion, a medical condition, pregnancy, etc., and that information factored into the decision not to move forward, the screening itself becomes far less important than what the employer did with what it found.

Proving that a specific piece of information actually drove a hiring decision is hard, and it depends heavily on the surrounding facts, including what else the employer knew and how the decision was explained, if it was explained at all.

Contact Michael Trust Law, APC for a no-charge initial consultation.  The facts determine whether you have a claim — and how much of a conversation that takes.

This post shares general information based on common patterns I see in California workplaces.  It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and outcomes depend on specific facts — no lawyer can guarantee a result.  Past results do not guarantee or predict future outcomes.  AI may have been used to create this post.  All content reviewed by a CA attorney before publication.