can a background check find your facebook profile?

[A Guy]

Im going through a background check right now for police hiring and they asked me to disclose my facebook page. I dont post anything super controversial but i dont want anyone to get any wrong ideas. Will they still be able to find it if I go under a totally different name and have most of my posts in a foreign language?

[Stella]

If you have nothing to hide, why are you being shady? I'd hate to know someone in law enforcement in my town was as shady as you.

A background check probably won't show all social media, but a Google search might. Especially if that search comes up with your aliases, which you should have disclosed on your application.

Oh, yeah...and if you lie, they'll catch up with you, so you better come clean.

[Lake]

Yes, they can and will. They can also check things you've deleted, and private messages, deleted or not.

Nothing is actually deleted on the Internet. Every bit of data is stored on a server for records. So a comment or status you posted 3 years ago, and deleted is stored on someone's server. Also Facebook stores everything you type in even before posting or sending.