When Your Facebook Account Becomes Part of the Job Application

What Say the AG?

Facebook_Skander_via_Massimo_Barbieri_flickrDouglas Gansler is the Attorney General of Maryland.  He was neither consulted when the policy was instituted nor when it was placed under review.  Thatโ€™s not surprising. Frankly, in the world of state government, where I worked for five years, the Attorney General (in whose Department I slaved for those five years, albeit in the great state of New Jersey)โ€”like a spouseโ€”is often the last to know in cases like this.

My sense from reading a story that ran on Washington DC radio station WTOP was that General Gansler may not have been captivated by the policy but wasnโ€™t necessarily convinced that under the circumstances the Department had done anything illegal. He said that there was no written policy for correctional officers.

Gansler drew the distinction between being forced to give up the keys to oneโ€™s cyber kingdom โ€œafterโ€ passing all the required background checks and being informed โ€œbeforeโ€ the fact that if you wish to work in a particular sandbox you needed to โ€œgive it upโ€โ€”so to speakโ€”to get your own shovel and pail.

[Article: Checking Job Applicantsโ€™ Credit Discriminates, Feds Say]

Would he have his druthers, I believe that Marylandโ€™s AG prefers to do background checking โ€œthe old fashioned wayโ€โ€”like reviewing applications, doing traditional criminal background checking and talking to folks who are knowledgeable about the applicantsโ€”over this or even more invasive tactics like looking at private e-mail or text messaging.

So whatโ€™s next? Asking for oneโ€™s list of โ€œmatchesโ€ on Match.com? Or will Marylandโ€™s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services ask for permission to intercept and read candidatesโ€™ snail mail?

I am offended by Marylandโ€™s policy. But, even assuming the Department officially ends the practice, on the issue of social network site screening by the majority of recruiters and employment professionals, the trend is not our โ€œfriend.โ€  It is hardly a secret that more and more employers are looking at credit reports and it is common practice that HR Directors scour the Internet looking for any evidence of impropriety or stupidityโ€”all too frequent in todayโ€™s Generation Invincible online world.

Fact: too much information about too many people is too abundantly available. Knowingly and unknowingly, wittingly and unwittingly, people are hemorrhaging personal identifying information by the minute. More than 81% of divorce lawyers credit sites like Facebook, Match and other online trend-setters with giving them the ammunition they need to bring home the bacon for their clients. Ah, the thanks of a grateful matrimonial bar nation. Perhaps that explains why more than 80% of the respondents in a recent Credit.com/GfK Roper poll said they โ€œwill not tolerateโ€ online tracking.

[Credit.com Survey: Americans Understand Online Tracking. And They Donโ€™t Like It.]

Fact: We complain about tracking yet at almost every turn in the road leave behind a trail of breadcrumbs not so that we may find our way home but rather that subconsciously we can lead others to us. Why?

Well that is a question for folks at a higher psychological pay grade than me.

I, however, am reminded of a principle that my old press secretary at New Jerseyโ€™s Division of Consumer Affairs referred to as โ€œThe 60 Minutes Theory.โ€

Larry Nagy counseled, โ€œNever do anything that would prevent you from finishing your TV dinner on a Sunday evening if Mike Wallace appeared on your television set and began telling you about you.โ€

We are our ultimate guardians. No one has a greater stake in our future and economic security than we do. That means we need to be ever vigilant, self-aware and careful. Even if no one ever asks for your social media and login information, that doesnโ€™t mean someone (on their own behalf or that of another) is not looking through your pages, posts, messages, pictures and Facebook wall as you read this.

Image: Skander via Massimo Barbieri

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