It is an employer’s job to use various tactics to determine the best applicant for the position. In today’s economy, jobs are scarce. When a new job ad does go up, the number of applicants per job is overwhelming. Many employers are looking for a reason not to hire applicants simply so they can narrow down the pool.
Given the emergence of technology and social media, employers are now conducting social media background checks. In Santa Barbara, California, one company specializes in going beyond background and credit checks, and conducts social media checks on potential employees. According to the New York Times, Social Intelligence does a thorough and comprehensive search of the Internet to find anything the applicant has posted to the world wide web in the last seven years.
Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr are all fair game. Social Intelligence are specifically looking for online evidence of racist remarks, drug references, sexually explicit photos, videos, flagrant displays of weapons or bombs and violent activity.
After concern over the company’s practice was raised, The Federal Trade Commission found that the company did comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Still, critics claim that the company is delving into information that is generally not relevant to the job duties.
Further, employers are restricted under Federal law and California law for discriminating based on certain protected activity. Social media content is another discrimination method. However, employers are not necessarily violating the laws based on their Internet scouring. Federal and state law only prohibits discrimination based on protected activity or categories, including, race, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, and participating in company investigations.
Discriminating based on drug references, for example, is not illegal. Thus, you should be mindful that what you post and try to delete on one site, could reappear. If you deactivate your Facebook account and subsequently reactivate it, all of your old material will reappear.
It is important to be careful what you post online. Even if you are currently employed, your next future employer may be able to scour the Internet and dig up postings from your past.
However, the employer could come across information online that falls into a legally protected category. Thus, you should contact a labor and employment attorney who knows the laws and can determine whether you have been unlawfully discriminated against in your job search.
