70% of Employers Rejected Applicants Based on Online Info

[Rob Williams]

For many of us, social networking is increasingly becoming an integral part of our lives. Are you on Facebook, or any other service like it? How often do you check it? Chances are that if you do use a social networking site, you check it daily, and in the cases of some socialite networkers, you may never be disconnected from it. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but there are caveats to watch out for.

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You can read the rest of our news post here.

 

[2Tired2Tango]

Almost 15 years ago when the internet was still in it's infancy and Usenet was the big "social network" of the day, I posted some information that resulted from some activism I conducted with the Canadian Government. It was nothing especially controversial just some essays I'd written to explain the issue and a copy of the Government's eventual decisions about the matter... What, in today's world would be considered "FYI" stuff.

In the middle of several hundred pages of documentation was one sentence ... a mere 20 or so words... that, taken out of context could have a different meaning than the one I intended.

This one sentence was enough to set off someone with a very disturbed mind and for the better part of 12 years, dealing with this person was my first and biggest task, every single day. The situation became worse and worse as time wore on.

This person developed an entire "alternate personality" for me which was the exact opposite of the truth and through power of repitition made it into the believed truth about me. Quite literally this person re-wrote my entire life history. I was accused, online, of just about everything from pedophilia to racism to defrauding the government... none of which was even close to the truth. But it was believed.

As this spread across the net I soon found myself dealing with this stuff off-line as well... It got into my workplace and cost me a couple of prime jobs. It got into my family and played a part in alienating me from my children. I was arrested and questioned several times about things that never happened. It even got into my social life as friends started asking me the strangest questions about my past and my present state in life.

Needless to say the impact on my life was devistating...

15 years after this started, the first message this "person" ever posted, along with some 11,000 subsequent hate messages, can still be found online. It's all nicely archived away for posterity by several different "agencies", including Google. 3 years after it ended I still find myself having to deal with the problems it's caused on a more or less daily basis as my new landord looked me up --with predictable results-- as have several potential customers... Needless to say this is going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

There are even a couple of places where you will see this whole situation cited as the first known case of "cyberstalking".

And even today I still occasionally meet new people who are already mad at me...

If you think you can actually erase anything from the Internet you are sorely mistaken. If you think you can have privacy while spilling your entire sordid life into a website, think again... And if you think people don't take what they see seriously, you need your head read.

The big problem is that most people believe what they hear or see first. Once given that first impression, convincing them otherwise is flat out impossible. The more you struggle to correct their misunderstanding the more you are peceived as denying the truth or lying about your past. That is to say that once the fix is in all you can really do is walk away and hope that's the end of it.

Really no joke... This could happen to anyone.

(Well, at least now you know why I don't post under my real name...)

 

[b1lk1]

I feel the REAL problem with this social networking is that people are dumb enough to do it in the first place. Putting all this data about one's life in the public eye is of course going to be used against you as it SHOULD be used against you since the author was the person who felt their anonymity would be protected. All these kids not getting jobs because they posted drunken blogs in college are getting what they deserve as well. I have no sympathy for this.

I do not use these sites. I do not allow my family to use them. I will never sign up for one and I have no intention of ever signing up for one. All my computers lock them out. They serve no purpose. If I want people to find me they can since I still communicate with them the old fashioned way, I talk to them.

It can be argued that there are legitimate needs for these sites, but as far as I am concerned, there is no such need. You take your chances with ANY personal information you post online anywhere. Do a Google search on your name or your forum user name. I have a common name so I am lucky there, but my user name is the same I have had for years. I just Googled my user name and got 786 unique hits. Lucky for me none of them contain personal info (not because I checked them all rather that I know I never post any).

The internet is not the wild wild west. The internet is not Vegas. What you post on the internet can and will be held against you. It's about time people woke up and realized this.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

I do not use these sites. I do not allow my family to use them. I will never sign up for one and I have no intention of ever signing up for one. All my computers lock them out. They serve no purpose. If I want people to find me they can since I still communicate with them the old fashioned way, I talk to them.

Glad i am not the only one. I desperately try and get people to stop using these damn social sites. They just tell me 'i'm paranoid' and 'who'll use my information...', and when i try to tell them that anyone can and will, they laugh, saying who'll look for their info. They don't understand the concept of macros and robots, the fact that no one will target you specifically, they don't target at all, they just search - picking up info as needed. I often find the insistence of sites demanding and publicly showing your age/date of birth, stupid. Name/ID + Age/DoB significantly narrows down specific information, a quick search through an electoral register, further narrows it down, giving access to huge amounts of information, all of which is publicly available and accessible.

"What can someone do with just my date of birth?" ... a whole damn lot.

 

[b1lk1]

DISCLAIMER: One IMPORTANT thing I must state before I go on. My views are in no ways the views of Techgage.com or any other member of techgage.com. This is my own personal view and is in no way meant to be an attack on any specific site no matter what the site is used for. My views are NOT to be taken as any official statement by anyone from Techgage.com. These are my sole personal views and opinions as I am rightfully entitled to have.

I hear the same ole "paranoid, tin foil hat, etc." when I tell people how I feel about these sites as well. But I hear time and time again people posting all sorts of personal info, pictures and whatever else and then complaining it was improperly accessed. Also, people seem to believe that they can control how their data is used. Noone reads the TOS, they just click the OK box as fast as possible to get to giving away more of themselves. In my mind these sites are like giant green field with a bounty of crop to harvest while the robot farmers just pick and choose what they harvest first. To each their own, of course, but it just ain't happenin' in my household.

 

[2Tired2Tango]

Glad i am not the only one. I desperately try and get people to stop using these damn social sites. They just tell me 'i'm paranoid' and 'who'll use my information...', and when i try to tell them that anyone can and will, they laugh, saying who'll look for their info.

Who will look up their info?

Employers, landlords, banks, ex-spouses, children, parents, inlaws, credit agencies... only the ones that matter.

In fact, I know of several companies that ask for websites, facebook etc, right on their job applications.

The reason people don't get the risk is they've never been exposed to it. From my own experience, revealed above I can Guarantee that your next employer or landlord is going to look... and they will use what they find in their decision making, whether it's true or not. I can also Guarantee that once they have a notion about you, you are totally powerless to change it... So whatever does go online is something you're going to live with for the rest of your life... just like a "Satans Choice" tatoo...

The sad part is these people are, by and large, innocents who simply don't have any reason to be worried. They live more or less gifted lives in which encounters with discrimination and hatred are rare to the point of disbelief... It's not their fault but when it does come to visit they are totally powerless to stop it.

 

[Phineas]

The biggest problem with "social networking" is that its so #!!%!$#!&$# boring.

 

[crowTrobot]

Yep that's why keeping them private is important. My twitter/facebook accounts I use for tech sites are different from my private accounts.

 

[Doomsday]

Thee dudes have opened mine eyelids!

my sympathies with thee Tango! i hope the person rots n burns in hell for what he did to you!

 

[Optix]

Every so often I do a search for my name in Google, Yahoo, Bing or any of the major search engines and do you know what comes up? Nothing!

Social networking sites just aren't for me. I have missed out on countless barbecues, get togethers and even a wedding because both my wife and I are not on Facebook. Pick up the phone. Call us. It has worked for decades. Hell, even stop by. That has worked for centuries!

The dependancy that people place on these social networking sites is astounding. Don't even get me started about Twitter. I don't want to know what kind of sammich you ate!

Those sites need to be flushed from the interwebz!

 

[Altrus]

The dependancy that people place on these social networking sites is astounding. Don't even get me started about Twitter. I don't want to know what kind of sammich you ate!

Those sites need to be flushed from the interwebz!

Don't bag on Twitter, I love Twitter its hilarious....well....if you follow the right people((Jim Gaffigan, Johnen Vasquez, etc)). Personally, I use it to write short stories and anecdotes when I'm bored...of course anyone following me probably thinks I'm insane by now...

 

[Optix]

I'm a big Johnen Vasquez fan and really wish Zim would be brought back. Looks like I'll just sit here and play with my GIR toy and watch the series.

 

[crowTrobot]

Don't bag on Twitter, I love Twitter its hilarious....well....if you follow the right people((Jim Gaffigan, Johnen Vasquez, etc)). Personally, I use it to write short stories and anecdotes when I'm bored...of course anyone following me probably thinks I'm insane by now...

Yep, I use it mostly so I can keep track of musicians and comedians I like and if they are performing in my town or a town I'll be up to date. It's much more convenient than for them to maintain a mailing list.

 

[Optix]

I still don't like social networking. People forget that being social means digging themselves out from behind their computer and actually interacting with people 1 on 1.

 

[crowTrobot]

hehe yeah, mostly its either for one way communication (from following musicians, etc) or keeping in contact with friends who live very far.