Slashdot Mirror
FTC Okays Social Media Background Check Company
nonprofiteer writes "The FTC has dropped its investigation of a new company that runs social media background checks and ongoing Internet/social media monitoring of employees, determining its compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. So make sure your gun photos are private and that you're not part of any 'Legalize marijuana' Facebook groups."
And it begins muahahhahahha. First your boss makes you friend him on face book, now your future boss wants to know everything about you that isn't his business.
Now I'm going to join every offensive group on Facebook that I can just so I know who's spying on me.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
There's nothing illegal about owning and being proud of guns (at least in the US)...so I don't get this comment on the article.
It isn't like being a gun owner would prevent anyone from getting a job or anything...never heard of that one.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
How about making sure you don't work for someone that'll fire you for being part of a legalize marijuana FB group?
Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
So make sure your gun photos are private and that you're not part of any 'Legalize marijuana' Facebook groups."
Or the opposite to ensure that you're only hired by people that share your values or won't spy on your social media.
Yeah illegal. ... in real life.
It's not a technical shortcoming of facebook's that you can't compartmentalize your presence, like we do
I will not work for a company that wants to bring their home drama to work with them. Simple as that.
It just keeps getting more relevant.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
since they lost 6 million users in the last month alone.
People are starting to realize that too much information can be a bad thing. (Aside from how many times you need to hear some long lost classmate bitching about their job or kids).
Anyone with a brain saw this coming long before now.
Whether it is legal or not is beside the point. If you use Facebook
you are providing info about yourself to a very large number of
people you don't know, and ( here is a clue for you ) not all of these
people will act in a friendly manner toward you.
There's no real reason to use Facebook, and the smartest people I know
already know this. If you want to keep up with your friends ( no you don't
have 800 friends ) you use email and the phone. If you want to disseminate
info about yourself to a select group of people, you put up your own web page
and make sure those in the select group know not to share the login password.
If you use Facebook, you deserve each and every nasty thing which results.
Welcome to the real world, where there are consequences for stupid actions
whether you think that's "fair" or not ( here's a second clue for you : there is no
such thing as "fair" in the real world ).
I think you'll find that in most states, your employer can fire you for any reason, as long as that reason is not your membership in a protected class.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The current American mentality is witchhunt first, then never, ever forgive. Felon? Employment-wise, you're hammered. Forever. Sexual *anything* to do with the law? Employment-wise, you're hammered. Forever. Anything that the social retards think isn't Good for the Children? I'm talking drinking, drugging, tattoos, piercings, partying, "planking", nudity of any kind, shooting, marching for any particular cause, flash mobbing, pranking, sexting, imitating the cognitively-impaired people on Jackass, extreme sports... or even being THERE when someone ELSE is doing any of these things... employment-wise, you're hammered.
And if, for some reason, things aren't quite that bad yet, don't worry, they'll very likely pass ex post facto laws to make it so later; just as they already have with guns and the various lists -- do not fly, do not sell to, violent/sexual offender, terrorism. And they'll conflate ridiculous things too - 17-year-old == child == peeing in bush, etc. You can do the most innocuous thing that you think is perfectly ok -- like photograph your cute little infant in the tub -- and end up with your mug shot right next to Victor the Vaginal Butcher, unemployable and forced to move into a box under that bridge downtown you've been throwing your coffee cups over the past few years.
So... you don't appreciate StupidBook becoming a threat to your job and you life and your family? Get out before it happens. Delete everything on your page before you go, and un-friend everyone. It's all you can do. It won't be enough - this is truly becoming a permanent record society that never, ever forgives, criminalizes the ridiculous, and no longer even gives lip service to the ideas of forgiveness or rehabilitation - but it's a start in the right direction.
Also - speaking as a photographer of many years - stop photographing people. Just stop. Nature, old, non-governmental architecture, that's the thing to shoot. Photography is turning into the next minefield. Same thing goes for video, if you're into video. Not just because it might harm you; but because it also might harm them. You might photograph someone in a place they really would prefer others not know they were, for whatever reason... you might catch that funny drunk guy, share the pic, and cause him to lose his job and livelihood and really, really hurt his entire family... or you might shoot that lovely government building you paid for and find yourself answering very hard questions from very hard people about why there is a bottle of bleach under your sink and ammo for your 22 cal. match rifle in your closet, said people showing up right at your job, complete with warrant from their pet oath-breaking judge. Followed immediately by your very own pink slip, because employers are hugely threatened by such events. And now you're unemployable. Welcome to America 2011.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
It is perfectly within an employer's right to not hire you except within the bounds of discrimination laws, and even then they can usually get away with most things unless you can actually prove it.
Also, racial employment is only really counted company-wide. So if a particular manager hates black people, as long as there's enough black people in the rest of the company he's free to discriminate.
Don't you just love our laws?
lack of confidence, insecurity, immodesty, lack of discretion, borderline personality disorder, anger management issues, immaturity, explosive hostility
people who have a need to pose with a handgun are communicating character weaknesses i don't want to deal with in a job environment
People who have a need to try and build a personality profile (full of diagnosis that only a psychologist who has spent time with the person is qualified to make) of someone they don't know based solely on Facebook photos are doing nothing more than projecting their own biases onto others and then denying that this perception was entirely self-manufactured.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
This is what happens when people allow anyone to step on their freedoms. Unions are just one, very valid, way of defending your freedoms against people or organizations that have more power than you do individually.
But don't worry about it too much. It's all part of the cycle. The good thing is that this means if we have to deal with the crappy part of the cycle then our children won't, and seriously they deserve something good after having to deal with the legacy we are bound to leave behind.
.. because you leave the door wide open for someone else to create a page using pictures of you to thoroughly trash your reputation. This is the problem with this insane idea: suddenly it is possible for complete strangers to screw up your life proper. A bit like politicians, but without you having any voting rights..
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