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Europe Says Employers Must Warn Job Applicants Before Checking Them Out on Social Media (cnn.com)
Europe has a message for employers: Think twice before you check the social media profiles of job applicants. From a report: European officials have issued new guidelines that warn bosses about the legal hazards of scrolling through the social media profiles of potential hires. The rules require employers to issue a disclaimer before they check applicants' online accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and LinkedIn. If applicants don't see the warning, the company could be in breach of European Union data protection rules. Employers are also barred from compiling social media data as part of the hiring process unless it is "necessary and relevant" for a particular job. The guidelines are part of a lengthy document clarifying data protection laws that apply to employers across 28 EU countries.
This is one thing that Europe gets right. Americans are so brainwashed into thinking they're all temporarily displaced billionaires that they just have this instinctive negative reaction to ideas and laws that might actually protect them. It's sickening really, considering that the time of best prosperity in this country was one of heavy marginal taxation on upper incomes (no, a 90% tax rate does NOT mean you give 90% of your money to the government), strong worker protections, strong unionization, a government that utilized tariffs and trade policy to favor the citizens of this country, and of course corporations that were actually run by people with a stake in what happened to them. You know, before the 'professional CEO' class, the merger and acquisition craze, and the notion that the only reason to start a company is so it will be acquired by some rich alleged job creator, with the layoff announcements coming shortly thereafter.
I'm ashamed of my country and the people in it on pretty much an hourly basis these days.