In the student essay that follows, note that the green annotations explain the student’s choice of sources and the orange annotations highlight features of the student’s use of documentation.

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Erin Blaine

Professor Adams

Humanities 101

4 March 2015

Should Data Posted on Social-Networking Sites Be “Fair Game” for Employers?

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The popularity of social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has increased dramatically over the last several years, especially among college students and young professionals. These sites provide valuable opportunities for networking and for connecting socially. At the same time, however, potential employers, human resources professionals, and even college admissions officers routinely use these sites to evaluate applicants. Because it is so easy to access social-networking sites and because they provide valuable information, this trend is certain to continue. Some people are concerned about this development, arguing that social-networking sites should be off-limits to potential employers because they do not have the context they need to evaluate information. As long as applicants have freely posted information in a public forum, however, there is no reason for an employer not to consult this information during the hiring process.

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The number of employers and universities using social-networking sites to evaluate candidates is growing every year. A recent survey found that 24 percent of college admissions officers acknowledged visiting sites like Facebook to learn more about applicants, and 12 percent said that the information they found “negatively impacted the applicant’s admissions chances” (“Online Behavior”). This practice also occurs in the business world, where the numbers are even more striking. A study conducted by CareerBuilder found that 43 percent of employers use social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to help them evaluate potential employees (“Number of Employers”). According to the New York Times, 75 percent of recruiters are required by their companies to research applicants online, and 70 percent of recruiters have rejected applicants because of information they found. The practice of checking social media is so common that some employers use outside companies, such as Social Intelligence Corp., to do Internet background checks on job candidates (Preston).

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Not everyone is happy with this practice, though, and some have strong objections. Becca Bush, a college student in Chicago, argues that employers should not have the right to use social media to evaluate potential employees. “It’s a violation of privacy,” she says. “Twenty years ago, people still did the same things as now,” but the information “wasn’t as widespread” (qtd. in Cammenga). Marc S. Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, agrees, saying, “Employers should not be judging what people in their private lives do away from the workplace” (qtd. in Preston). Rotenberg goes on to say that privacy settings on sites like Facebook are often misunderstood. According to him, “People are led to believe that there is more limited disclosure than there actually is” (qtd. in Preston). Some people mistakenly think that looking at an applicant’s Facebook page is illegal (Cammenga). Even though it is not, this practice can lead to discrimination, which is illegal. An online search can reveal characteristics that an applicant is not required to disclose to employers—for example, race, age, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, or disability (Preston).

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Given the realities of the digital age, however, admissions committees and job recruiters are acting reasonably when they access social-networking sites. As a practical matter, it would be almost impossible to prevent employers from reviewing online sites as part of informal background and reference checks. Moreover, those who believe that it is unethical for recruiters to look at the online profiles of prospective job candidates seem willing to accept the benefits of social-networking sites but unwilling to acknowledge that these new technologies bring new responsibilities and liabilities. Finally, the problems associated with employers’ use of social-networking sites would not be an issue in the first place if users of social-networking sites took full advantage of the available measures to protect themselves.

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Part of the problem is that the Internet has fundamentally altered our notions of “private” and “public” in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. As Shelley Fralic observes in “Don’t Fall for the Myths about Online Privacy,” Facebook’s privacy options do not really protect its users’ privacy, and thinking they do “is beyond absurd” (1). On sites like Facebook, people can reveal intimate details of their lives to millions of strangers. This situation is unprecedented and, at least for the foreseeable future, irreversible. As New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman observes, “When everyone has a blog, a MySpace page, or Facebook entry, everyone is a publisher. . . . When everyone is a publisher, paparazzo, or filmmaker, everyone else is a public figure.” Given the changes in our understanding of privacy and the public nature of the Internet, the suggestion that we should live our lives by the same rules we lived by twenty years ago simply does not make sense. As Friedman notes, in the Internet age, more and more of “what you say or do or write will end up as a digital fingerprint that never gets erased” (23).

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Rather than relying on outdated notions of privacy, students and job seekers should accept these new conditions and take steps to protect themselves. Most college and career counseling services have easy-to-follow recommendations for how to maintain a positive online reputation. First on almost everyone’s list is the advice, “Adjust your privacy settings.” Northwestern University’s Career Services says it simply: “Use your settings wisely and employers will not have access to the contents of your sites” (“Using Social Networking”). Understanding and employing these settings is a user’s responsibility; misunderstanding such protections is no excuse. As Mariel Loveland suggests, those who want extra help can hire an online reputation-management company such as Reputation.com or Integrity Defenders or use services such as those offered by Reppler. The “Reppler Image Score” enables social-networking users to identify questionable material “across different social networks” and to rate its “professionalism and consistency.”

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The most important way for people to protect themselves against the possible misuse of personal information is for them to take responsibility for the information they post online. According to a recent article in Education Week, even middle school students should keep their future college and career plans in mind when they post information online (“Online Behavior”). In preparing students to apply for college, many high school counselors stress the “golden rule”: “students should never post anything online they wouldn’t want their parents to see” (“Online Behavior”). Students and job seekers must realize that a commonsense approach to the Internet requires that they develop good “digital grooming” habits (Bond). For example, one self-described “cautious Internet user” says that she “goes through the information on her [Facebook] account every few weeks and deletes statuses, messages, and other things” (Bond). She understands that a potential employer coming across an applicant’s membership in a Facebook group such as “I Sold My Grandma for Crack-Cocaine!” or a picture of a student posing with an empty liquor bottle may not understand the tone, the context, or the joke. Students should also be careful about “friends” who have access to their online social networks, asking themselves whether these people really know them and would have good things to say about them if a prospective employer contacted them for a reference. According to one high school principal, 75 percent of the students at his school admitted to accepting a friend request from someone they did not know (“Online Behavior”). Getting students to consider the repercussions of this kind of choice is central to many social-media education programs.

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Although social-networking sites have disadvantages, they also have advantages. These sites provide an excellent opportunity for job seekers to connect with potential employers and to get their names and résumés in circulation. For example, a job seeker can search the LinkedIn networks of a company’s executives or human resources staff for mutual connections. In addition, a job seeker can post information calculated to appeal to potential employers. Recruiters are just as likely to hire candidates based on social-media screening as they are to reject them. A recent article reports the following:

However, one third (33 percent) of employers who research candidates on social networking sites say they’ve found content that made them more likely to hire a candidate. What’s more, nearly a quarter (23 percent) found content that directly led to them hiring the candidate, up from 19 percent last year. (“Number of Employers”)

In today’s job market, people should think of their networks as extensions of themselves. They need to take an active role in shaping the image they want to project to future employers.

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As Thomas L. Friedman argues in his column, “The Whole World Is Watching,” access to information creates opportunities as well as problems. Quoting Dov Seidman, Friedman maintains that the most important opportunity may be the one to “out-behave your competition.” In other words, just as the Internet allows negative information to travel quickly, it also allows positive information to spread. So even though students and job seekers should be careful when posting information online, they should not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the many opportunities that social-networking sites offer.

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Works Cited

Bond, Michaelle. “Facebook Timeline a New Privacy Test.” USA Today, 2 Nov. 2011, www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/story/2011-11-02/facebook-timeline-privacy/51047658/1.

Cammenga, Michelle. “Facebook Might Be the Reason You Don’t Get That Job.” Hub Bub, Loyola University Chicago’s School of Communication, 23 Feb. 2012, blogs.luc.edu/hubbub/reporting-and-writing/employers-screen-facebook/.

Fralic, Shelley. “Don’t Fall for the Myths about Online Privacy.” Calgary Herald, 17 Oct. 2015, p. 1.

Friedman, Thomas L. “The Whole World Is Watching.” The New York Times, 27 June 2007, p. A23.

Loveland, Mariel. “Reppler Launches ‘Reppler Image Score,’ Rates Social Network Profile Content for Potential Employers.” Scribbal, 27 Sept. 2011, www.scribbal.com/reppler-launches-rates-social-network-profile-content-09-27-11/.

“Number of Employers Passing on Applicants Due to Social Media Posts Continues to Rise.” CareerBuilder, 26 June 2014, www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?sd=6%2F26%2F2014&id=pr829&ed=12%2F31%2F2014.

“Online Behavior Jeopardizing College Plans; Admissions Officers Checking Social-Networking Sites for Red Flags.“ Education Week, 14 Dec. 2011, p. 11. Academic One File, www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/12/08/14collegeadmit.h31.html.

Preston, Jennifer. “Social Media History Becomes a New Job Hurdle.” The New York Times, 20 July 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/technology/social-media-history-becomes-a-new-job-hurdle.html?_r=0.

“Using Social Networking in Your Employment Search.” University Career Services, Northwestern University, 2011, www.northwestern.edu/careers/job-intern-prep/social-media-advice/index.html.