Could you pass a Facebook background search?
The next time you apply for a job, don't be surprised if you have to agree to a social-media background check. Many U.S. companies and recruiters are now looking at your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other accounts and blogs -- even YouTube -- to paint a clearer picture of who you are.
"Almost all employers do some form of background screening because they have to avoid negligent hiring," says Max Drucker, chief executive of Social Intelligence, a consumer-reporting agency. "An employer has an obligation to make the best effort to protect their employees and customers when they hire."
And now the Federal Trade Commission has decided that companies that research how you spend your personal time and what your passions and hobbies are do not violate your privacy. The agency recently investigated Social Intelligence, which scours the Internet for the information, pictures and comments you freely share with the world and sells it to your potential employers. The FTC found the company compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In other words, the Internet is fair game.
"When someone puts their public life out there publicly, it's there to be evaluated," says Kim Harmer, a partner at Harmer Associates, a Chicago-based recruiting firm. "You find out lots of things about people just by Googling them."
You can breathe a sigh of relief about those party pictures plastered all over your Facebook -- most employers and consumer-reporting agencies will look past them, unless, of course, you're underage. "I look at their Facebook and see how they approach what they put on it," Ms. Harmer says. "Is it immature? Appropriate or inappropriate? I'm not judging their activity but looking at how they communicate what they do and their thoughts and their judgments to the public as a reflection of what they will do with clients and team members. Read more:
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