Back in June, I came across the news of the upcoming launch of Score Assured, a site that is dedicated to providing social media background checks for landlords. At the time, several articles stated that the launch was imminent, but they had already started to release the first product, Tenant Assured, for use. In fact, a Washington Times reporter used the site to create a report on herself, and this is what it looked like:

 

 

When I wrote the original post on this subject, I mentioned that I wanted to follow it, as I wasn’t sure it would ever leave the ground. Do I think social media background checks are a good thing? Absolutely. Did I think the way this company was planning to go about it was the best way to do so? Nope.

And here’s why: the company wanted full access to a candidate’s social profiles. In the case of the Washington Post reporter who used the site, you can see that they asked for access permissions similar to any third party application, meaning that they can access your full set of social data.

 

As of this writing, the site is more fleshed out than it was back in June, but most pages still show “coming soon” and cannot be accessed. It looks like it never gained traction, or ever really got started.

With HR departments and insurance companies turning to social media for background checks, I’m surprised that landlords and leasing agencies aren’t doing this as well, though I think it’s just a matter of time. If Score Assured would change their tactics and utilize programs that can scan and collect public facing data and develop their algorithm to create a report based from that, I think they’ll have better luck.

Someone in that industry will figure it out, and when they do, it will be a great resource for leasing agents to use when reviewing tenant applications.