Employer background service now scours Facebook

[Miramonti]

Who the fuck cares? Don't post pics of you doing dumb shit online.

I have friends, family, and co-workers on my facebook. I don't post anything on there that I wouldn't say in front of all of them.

If you treat facebook like you would a busy street corner where anyone in public can see you, you won't have anything to worry about.

That's bull. While there's nothing shameful about partying with friends and posting pics lifting a margarita or a 12oz, an info-scraping service or potential employer could label you as a 'partier' and potentially a greater employment risk.

It's best to keep everything private among friends only, if not stay off social networking sites altogether, or use them only as a point of contact.

 

[Lithium381]

i think i was here a few years ago someone posted a link to a job application for a government gig..... it had fields for "what websites do you visit, what is your username and password?"

lulz

 

[SphinxnihpS]

I don't have anything on my Facebook that's necessarily negative or inappropriate, but I'll be damned if this doesn't piss me off. Might be time to delete the old FB account for good.

Here's the rub then. Not having a FB page is probably considered worse by them than some of the things they find on your FB page. You will be flagged for being anti-social or something.

 

[seepy83]

Um, doesn't it serve you right? Don't post stupid crap on the web for everyone to see and you'll be fine.

KT

I agree. However, if data that is "private", based on the privacy settings in your account, is being sold by Facebook to background check services behind the scenes(as is implied earlier in this thread), then there's a big problem here.

 

[ultimatebob]

Just use the Weiner excuse, Lol I got hacked guyz.

Yeah, that worked out GREAT for him...

Seriously, anybody that posts stuff on Facebook that is even remotely private is an idiot. Once Facebook goes public, they'll be even more willing to sell your personal information to anyone who wants it.

 

[ultimatebob]

My level of concern: 0
Not only do I not Facebook, but if I Google myself (including address) in 10 pages of results I only find ONE legitimate hit, and that was a twitter post from my wife when I got my MBA. As far as the public-record internet it concerned I don't exist.

Yeah... but like other people said, it's probably considered a negative if nothing about you comes back at all. They'll think that you're one of those anti-technology weirdos like the Uni-bomber.

 

[pmv]

I'm honestly surprised by what some of my Facebook friends post, especially given the fact that a majority of them are seniors/juniors in college and are already looking for jobs.

As for the attached example, I didnt realize have pics of an assault rifle in your hands was a reason for companies to not hire you..

I'd imagine some employers might see it as a plus. Arms manufacturers, the NRA, the Republican Party, Blackwater and, um...the postal service, possibly?

Also, the electorate in many countries seems to see it as a positive, given the frequency with which politicians across the globe like to have photo-ops holding guns or driving tanks etc.

 

[Zargon]

I'm not making a point about gun ownership, if its legal where the guy is then its obviously ok.

I'd definitely think twice about hiring the kind of person who poses in a group brandishing various weapons and posts the photos on the internet.

You dont think that's an odd and slightly disturbing thing to do?

I took a bunch of friends to a shooting range, and there was a group photo and each person had one of the firearms they brought with them in it

how is that disturbing?

 

[SP33Demon]

I took a bunch of friends to a shooting range, and there was a group photo and each person had one of the firearms they brought with them in it

how is that disturbing?

Yep, a lot of people collect guns and like to show them off.

 

[sactoking]

Yeah... but like other people said, it's probably considered a negative if nothing about you comes back at all. They'll think that you're one of those anti-technology weirdos like the Uni-bomber.

I doubt that, my resume/CV has a bunch of technology-related info on it.

 

[Raduque]

You dont think that's an odd and slightly disturbing thing to do?

No.

 

[nick1985]

My wife's friend is 31 and posts nasty comments about her company and boss on Facebook and her blog. We've told her to knock it off and for the longest time, her FB profile was completely open to the public. At least she locked that down, but her blog is still available and shows up on the first page in Google when you search by her name. Some people just don't get it.

It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid people are.

 

[tommo123]

i think i was here a few years ago someone posted a link to a job application for a government gig..... it had fields for "what websites do you visit, what is your username and password?"

lulz

i cannot provide that information without being in breach of the T+Cs of said site

 

[jupiter57]

I wouldn't work for a company that gave a fuck about what I do on my own free time. I sell them my time for money, what happens during that transaction is their business, everything else is them being authoritarian and fuck authoritarians.

We don't really give a F**k what you do on your own free time, but if we see that you post incessantly during work hours, we don't want you!

 

[coxmaster]

I'm not making a point about gun ownership, if its legal where the guy is then its obviously ok.

I'd definitely think twice about hiring the kind of person who poses in a group brandishing various weapons and posts the photos on the internet.

You dont think that's an odd and slightly disturbing thing to do?

Its disturbing to own guns, get together with friends (that likely own similar guns) and go shooting/take a few pics?

 

[FS]

If the company says that they'll remove the pics after you've updated your profile(ie; removed the pics) then it seems like they do have private access to our profiles ... yes, even the locked ones. So when they update their database, they look for the flagged pictures and if there is no match found, your picture that was flagged by them and stored in their DB gets removed. While performing this update they, obviously, acquire more [new] photos from your profile and flag them accordingly and this process repeats.

Public profiles info has been getting collected for ages and I highly doubt they are at it ONLY as well. If they were, then simply locking your profile would get all your previously flagged pictures removed from their database when they perform the update and not find those pics. So basically they're lying to avoid lawsuits* when they say they're only collecting publicly available info.



*btw, the lawsuits in these kind of scenarios don't make much sense as the people willingly provide all their info to Facebook and then accept its Terms of usage and thus, also accept whatever Facebook chooses to do with that info.

 

[Balt]

If you treat facebook like you would a busy street corner where anyone in public can see you, you won't have anything to worry about.

Yep.