Now Your Embarrassing/Job-Threatening Facebook Photos Could Haunt You For Seven Years

[Newsjock]

Source: Forbes

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission gave a stamp of approval to a background check company that screens job applicants based on their Internet photos and postings. The FTC determined that Social Intelligence Corp. was in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This means a search of what you’ve said or posted to Facebook/Twitter/Flickr/blogs and the Internet in general may become a standard part of background checks when you apply for a job.

No big deal, right? You already knew that employers were Googling you. I argued this was actually better, because Social Intelligence has to make sure its clients inform job applicants if they took adverse action based on something found on the Internet. That way you can delete and change privacy settings accordingly.

But there’s a wrinkle. If something job-threatening pops up on Facebook or Flickr or Craigslist in a search of you, Social Intelligence puts it into your file — and it stays there for seven years.

COO Geoffrey Andrews sent me a statement via email this evening explaining that negative findings are kept on file but are not reused when a new employer runs a check on you:

Read more: http://blogs.forbes.com/kashmirhill/2011/06/20/now-your-embarrassingjob-threatening-facebook-photos-will-haunt-you-for-seven-years/

[northoftheborder]

1. Call me a backwards old Luddite, but.....

I have not been convinced that Tweeting and Facebooking would improve my life whatsoever. You give up all privacy when you do so.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. I got out of Facebook completely, and heard they lost 6,000,000 people recently due to

the dangers of them selling info and lack of security.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Why post personal shit? I can't understand the urge to join facebook, etc.

I would guess it serves two purposes--ego fulfillment (you don't exist if you don't have a web presence, apparently) and keeping in touch with those people who have been relegated to the margins of your life without having to ever actually SPEAK with them or VISIT them. Because you would never actually call them if facebook didn't exist.

[nebenaube]

6. It's great for army brats!

Especially when one exists sans siblings.... We have a life and a history again thanks to that site.

[Cronus Protagonist]

7. FB helps me keep in touch with my friends who live 6500 miles away

I would SPEAK with them, but they're 8 hours ahead of me, so it's not easy to find a good time to do that. And I would VISIT them, if I had a few thousand bucks to spare, so FB at least lets me keep in touch with them and vice versa.

And that's better than calling them once a year or not seeing them at all.

Why so angry?

:wtf:


P.S. DU is also social media, you just THINK it's private and anonymous.

[begin_within]

9. I use e-mail for that same purpose.

Sure, e-mail is not totally private, but at least it's a lot less public than Facebook or Twitter.

[pipi_k]

13. Don't know how many friends and relatives you have...

But if you have more than a handful it can get awfully tricky trying to keep up with more than that via email.

Not that I have a whole bunch of friends and relatives on Facebook, but I do have cousins and aunts and uncles and a sister and grandkids, classmates from high school, etc. I like being able to read about what they're doing in their daily lives in less than 20 minutes. It's all in one place. If I want to communicate privately, FB has a function for that.

And...as far as I know, you still can't see posts or album photos of people who have chosen to HIDE those things from all but their friends. I've always been able to control what strangers can and cannot view on my page.


I've found cousins I never knew I had. I recently found an uncle I haven't seen since about 1973. Another uncle I hadn't seen since 1971. And high school classmates I hadn't seen since graduation in 1970. Some of them I wasn't that close to. Some I never spoke to at all. But we have something in common, and there are a few of the women who share my love of a certain sport and when "our" team plays we cheer and boo in between plays. On Facebook. Loads of fun.

Anyway, to each his own...

:shrug:

[snagglepuss]

4. I never post my name as it is very unusal however several people do share

the same name and one posted a on line petition I don't want to be associated with. In cases like this how do employers know which joe blow posted what?

If someone has a common name the possibility of mistaken identity is just as great, though people have the advantage of being lost in a multitude when a common name is searched.

It's impossible to prove one isn't responsible for on line material. Furthermore people could deliberately post material is someone's name and there would be no way to prove one's innocence. I think this decision should be appealed.

[BlueIris]

5. This is one reason I don't FB.

Or Myspace or Twitter.

[FormerDittoHead]

8. Note: Facebook keeps the pictures you DELETE, and can SELL THEM too!

http://consumerist.com/2009/02/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever.html

...anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later.* Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want.

[snagglepuss]

10. Excellent info on that site. THanks for posting. nt

[Journeyman]

11. Some years ago, privacy advocates were all distressed by "Total Information Awareness". . .

and the program was (maybe) mothballed. Then Facebook & Twitter & a host of other "social network" sites came into being, and people began to willingly provide the information they had so diligently wanted protected just a short time before.

I don't understand the need to be so public with my private life.

[pipi_k]

12. Might as well start a petition to abolish Facebook completely, then...

because here's the thing...

People who think they're going to be "safe" from people trying to access their personal information online if they stay away from Facebook...surprise! You don't even HAVE to be on Facebook. Someone could create an account using your name and post all sorts of things.

Got a jealous co-worker? This person could create a fake account using your name, open it up to your boss, ruin your life, and then delete it before you would ever see it.

Jealous ex? Same thing. Some creative Photoshopping could create a VERY interesting life for you.


Probably the best thing to do if you think you might be victimized this way would be to have a real Facebook page with relatively innocuous stuff on it. Then at least you have proof of having a REAL account there that you wouldn't be ashamed to show your grandma or clergyman and it would be easier to refute the fake Facebook page.

But, in the end, nobody can totally escape mischief if someone really wants to do it. Not even people who stay away from Facebook.